When does your cruising season start?

[Nostrodamus]

Winter seems to have been here forever and I am starting to get a bit stir crazy.

I wondered when the cruising season starts in different places?

Where are you and when, realistically are you going to get out from your wintering place?

 

[ccscott49]

For us, cruising normally starts, late april, as the weather here in the ionian can still be a bit crappy, however this year we wont start until mid may earliest, as we are waiting on decent dryish weather to start re-caulking our decks.

 

[NornaBiron]

We're anchored in Crete and will leave at the end of March and cruise up to the Argolic Gulf for a lift and paint up.

 

[charles_reed]

Winter seems to have been here forever and I am starting to get a bit stir crazy.

I wondered when the cruising season starts in different places?

Where are you and when, realistically are you going to get out from your wintering place?

April.
I'm still in the UK until mid-March and intend to be in the Ionian and Aegean.

 

[Conachair]

Winter seems to have been here forever and I am starting to get a bit stir crazy.

I wondered when the cruising season starts in different places?

Where are you and when, realistically are you going to get out from your wintering place?

The cruising season starts when you get below 35deg.

Then you go when you want to. Apart from dodging the occasional hurricane of course.

 

[tonybannister]

Cesme Turkey. Will start cruising early May. Different to being UK based I guess. More to do with the the fact we are living aboard as sailing is perfectly possible earlier. Makes more sense to move your home in May. However if we had a good winters deal and had to move early April when summer rates start then we would have to start early.

 

[Blue5]

Winter seems to have been here forever and I am starting to get a bit stir crazy.

I wondered when the cruising season starts in different places?

Where are you and when, realistically are you going to get out from your wintering place?

It was meant to be Portugal in April but given the temperature here in UK this morning is -5C there could a hasty change in plans

 

[25931]

It was meant to be Portugal in April but given the temperature here in UK this morning is -5C there could a hasty change in plans

I was sailing in bright sunshine with 17ºC but very little wind yesterday.

 

[tri39]

I am unlikely to have a clear route out of the boatyard till late May.
And I'll need all of that month to make further progress with the never ending refit.
So probably launching mid even late June. Will head south for Greece.
Wonder which currency they'll be using!?

 

[AndrewB]

I'm fortunately beyond the privations of an English winter these days.

When we were sailing in England, our season usually lasted until the middle of January (often our last sail was on the journey back from LIBS), and we always restarted at the beginning of April.

This is the big plus of owning an out-and-out cruising liveaboard, with its thick insulation, on-board heating systems, sheltered steering position, and sea-kindliness in nasty winter weather. AWB-ers might sneer at us as they leave us in their wake, but we get far more use out of our boat in a season.

 

[Ariadne]

Well, we started back in December, currently in the Gambia (Lamin Lodge) and heading up river to Georgetown on Sunday or Monday next week. Then across to the Caribbean not sure where yet at the begining of March.

 

[TQA]

Err never stops out here in the Caribbean. Esp like the summer when the grockles stay home. OK you need to be South and listen to the forecasts but cruising is a 24/7/365 affair out here.

 

[Carmel2]

We did the Golf de Lion in February..............What a ****! Never doing that again

 

[vyv_cox]

Booked Ancona to Igoumenitsa this morning, March 24. Piraeas to Leros March 28.

 

[Roaring Girl]

Relates to when the clients stop expecting us to turn up! This year should escape UK by about Easter, two or three weeks to get shipshape (as we've been away so long this time) and then we'll leave Malta for Sicily and then the Adriatic.

I agree with AndrewB that when living aboard 365/365 in the UK we actually sailed every month of the year, including going to LIBS and spending a while in London. When we have managed to winter afloat in easier climes we would usually move around April but as others suggest it partly depends on summer rate hikes and available anchorages.

In 2010 we left UK in March to find icy pontoons in Ostia (later alleviated by ash cloud), spent a month exploring Rome and pootling about before going 112 miles in one (wet, cold, icky) go to Elba. Then we spent a fab month at anchor in Portoferraio eating and hiking and waiting for spring to arrive, when we left for Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. At which point did the cruising start? Freezing weather here makes me want to go immediately, but once I'm home and afloat, I'm rather more relaxed ...

 

[tennisgirl1]

We usually launch at the beginning of May. We do this for two reasons :it is convenient to use charter flights or cheap flights which fly you direct to the nearest airport, and they only tend to start in May. Starting out earlier often involves a much more complex and expensive journey.

Secondly, restaurants and cafes are open, and towns start to wake up from their winter sleep. We found the Aegean and some of its nicer spots e.g. Levitha, still very much asleep in late April a couple of years ago.

So this year we are flying out to Greece on 25th April.

 

[duncan99210]

Begining of April or when the winds settle down enough to leave ........

 

[grumpygit]

When it's warm enough for shorts and tee shirt. 3c in Athens today bf6 and sleet and snow . . . . . brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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[Plomong]

Winter seems to have been here forever and I am starting to get a bit stir crazy.

I wondered when the cruising season starts in different places?

Where are you and when, realistically are you going to get out from your wintering place?

Assuming you are still in La Rochelle, weather should pick up noticeably in late April, early May, and be balmy by the end of May.

Coldest time of the year around these parts is from mid-January through end of February when we are statistically most likely to get snow !!!! But after that, temperatures pick up quickly and it is unusual for us to run the central heating more than 2 hours any day, and then only some days, by late March/early April.

However, be warned -- April is typically wet, very wet, though there have been exceptions.

My cruising year last year was planned to start early May, but elections and their aftermath kept me in port until the end of May, finally getting away (to Royan, then La Rochelle, and onwards to the north. . .) on 4th June.

By the way, we entered Royan by the southern entrance in a heat haze that did not allow us to see the next buoy from the previous one, so entry was by dead-reckoning and GPS. We only got a very brief and hazy glimpse of the Corduan lighthouse, and that is very big and usually very noticeable.

Plomong

 

[Wansworth]

I will be flying to the Uk to refit my boat for a summer cruise in May,I hope the bar sand cafes are open and I can get any chandlery I might need.From what I have gathered I will be anchouring off as marinas are expensive,looking forward to meeting the locals,Wemouth sounds nice!