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Deleted User YDKXO
Guest
The boaty magazines are always full of stuff about how utterly wonderful Med boating is. Sunseekers, sea and sangria all the way. Well it’s not and here’s why
You don’t get to use your boat nearly as much as you want. If, like me, you were used to popping down to your boat on the S Coast on a whim, maybe skiving off work early on a summer evening or if Sunday’s weather looked good, then you wont get any of that in the Med. When you first get to the Med, you think you’ll be flying out on a Friday evening and returning on a Sunday evening after an idyllic weekend on the boat. Well it does’nt work like that. First, you soon find it’s bloody knackering to do that and, second, the airline schedules often don’t allow it and, if you leave it late to book, the fares are hugely expensive. The reality is that you will be limited to holidays and the odd long weekend, all pre-planned months in advance to take advantage of cheap fares and, its worse with school-age kids as your trips will then be limited to school holidays and half terms unless you can find an accommodating granny to park them with for the odd weekend. So, keep your boat in the Med and you will have to get used to not seeing it for long periods
The weather is not always as advertised in the brochure. Yes, its true that through May to Sept, you can generally bank on hot sunny weather but not always and, outside this period, the weather can be almost as variable as ours. We’ve seen howling gales in the South of France in October, days of miserable rain in Spain over Easter and even snow in Mallorca in March. The trouble is not that the bad weather happens, just that it is sometimes unavoidable. You’ve booked your long weekend months in advance and then you look at the forecast a couple of days before you go and its crap. What do you do? Cancel the trip and lose your flight tickets or try to rebook at a rip off extra cost? Or what happens if the weather turns foul whilst you’re out there? There is no option to hop in your car and go home early, only to see if you can get an earlier flight, again usually at exhorbitant cost
The travelling is hideous. When I had my boat in the UK, our journey to the boat would take 1 to 2 hrs depending on traffic. If the traffic was bad, at least we would be sitting in a nice comfortable airconditioned car listening to Classic FM to soothe frayed tempers. To get anywhere in the Med takes 5-6 hours door to door and that is without factoring in delays; our last trip back from Palma took 8 ½ hrs. Then you’re going to spend a minimum of 2hrs squashed into a little aluminium tube with the great unwashed with their howling offspring kicking your seat back whilst you try to consume the unspeakable filth that airlines call food. Many a time I’ve sat on aircraft asking myself whether this is all worth it
Its going to cost you much more than you think. Its easy to convince yourself that Med boating is not going to cost you much more than UK boating because the marina costs can be on a par with the UK and you can get flights with Sleazyjet for pennies. The marina charges may look acceptable but that’s before they hit you with port charges, local council charges, electricity and water charges. Yes you can get cheap flights if you book months in advance for the second Wednesday in February but if you want flights around school holidays, half terms and bank holidays and particularly if you leave it until only a few weeks ahead of your trip, it’s going to cost hundreds of pounds for you and your family. Then there’s the cost of looking after your boat. You’ve gone to the Med for a 3 day long weekend. Do you want to spend hours in the baking sun doing those little maintenance jobs left over from last time whilst you could be on the water? In my case not, so you end up paying somebody else to do virtually every maintenance job because the little time you get on your boat is so precious. Then there is the issue of guardiennage. Stern-to berthing is not as secure as pontoon berthing and you can’t just pop down to the boat to double up the lines if a blow is forecast. Who’s going to keep an eye on fenders and lines during the months when you’re not on your boat and who’s going to keep it clean? So you end up paying somebody £300 a month to do that. Then there is the fuel cost. UK red diesel is expensive but, for the moment, not as expensive as white Med diesel. Then you’re going to have to pull your boat out of the water 3 times a year to clean the hull because of the aggressive fouling at several hundred pounds a go.
The boat itself is going to cost more because you need a passarelle, aircon, generator, and bimini to bring it up to ‘Med spec’ and when you sell it, it might fetch less or take ages to sell because it’s in an out of the way location
You can’t go anywhere. Berths in most popular areas are at a premium which means that there are few visitors berths which means that they get full during the summer and you can’t get in without having booked months in advance. So you either risk anchoring overnight or go back to your home berth every night. Even if you can find a visitors berth, its going to cost you between €70 and €200/night for a 15m berth
Dangerous critters are everywhere. There are more mosquitos in the Med than the UK and they just love juicy British flesh so get used to plastering yourself with repellent every evening. The sea is often infested with jellyfish so, even if you think they’re not going to hurt, the thought of swimming is off putting. Then, some of the beaches have colonies of sea urchins so you have to wear shoes for paddling. Maybe Southend beach is’nt so bad after all
There’s no social scene. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in 4 seasons we’ve ever met our neighbours in the boats next door and only once have we ever socialised with another boat. It’s obvious why. They’re using their boats as seldom as you are and the chances of actually meeting each other are miniscule and even if you do, they’re likely to speak some unintelligible foreign language. No longer can you get by with pigeon Franglais or Spanglish; you need Russian and Polish as well and maybe a spot of Hungarian too. Then, if you rent a berth, you’re always on the move anyway so by the time you’re on speaking terms, one or other of you has moved berths or marinas
The marinas and ports are all the same. 50 years ago there was’nt a tourist infrastructure in most of the Med. Then came the tourist explosion and with it pleasure boating, as a result of which dozens of marinas were built. Stick a breakwater out into the sea, builds a few pontoons behind and you’ve got a marina, the result of which is that most marinas look very similar and the surrounding development looks very similar too. There is little or no sense of boating tradition either, no ambience of just messing about in boats
The boating is too easy. As there are little or no tides and most of the coastline is fairly steep-to, boating is very much you hit what you see. Plug a waypoint into the plotter, flick the pilot on and just watch you don’t hit any sticky up bits. Yes the weather can be unexpectedly temperamental but you don’t get the same sense of achievement arriving in a new port as you would, say, first time in Guernsey, St Malo or the Scillies having braved fog, wind and intricate pilotage
I bet you’re thinking that if it’s so rubbish, why don’t we bring the boat back to the UK. Well, in time, we might just do that but for the moment, the balance of our thoughts are just about tilted towards Med boating because we feel we have’nt explored all the cruising areas we would like too yet. The best Med boating days are better than the best UK boating days because of the sun and clear warm water but you pay a price for that in more ways than one
You don’t get to use your boat nearly as much as you want. If, like me, you were used to popping down to your boat on the S Coast on a whim, maybe skiving off work early on a summer evening or if Sunday’s weather looked good, then you wont get any of that in the Med. When you first get to the Med, you think you’ll be flying out on a Friday evening and returning on a Sunday evening after an idyllic weekend on the boat. Well it does’nt work like that. First, you soon find it’s bloody knackering to do that and, second, the airline schedules often don’t allow it and, if you leave it late to book, the fares are hugely expensive. The reality is that you will be limited to holidays and the odd long weekend, all pre-planned months in advance to take advantage of cheap fares and, its worse with school-age kids as your trips will then be limited to school holidays and half terms unless you can find an accommodating granny to park them with for the odd weekend. So, keep your boat in the Med and you will have to get used to not seeing it for long periods
The weather is not always as advertised in the brochure. Yes, its true that through May to Sept, you can generally bank on hot sunny weather but not always and, outside this period, the weather can be almost as variable as ours. We’ve seen howling gales in the South of France in October, days of miserable rain in Spain over Easter and even snow in Mallorca in March. The trouble is not that the bad weather happens, just that it is sometimes unavoidable. You’ve booked your long weekend months in advance and then you look at the forecast a couple of days before you go and its crap. What do you do? Cancel the trip and lose your flight tickets or try to rebook at a rip off extra cost? Or what happens if the weather turns foul whilst you’re out there? There is no option to hop in your car and go home early, only to see if you can get an earlier flight, again usually at exhorbitant cost
The travelling is hideous. When I had my boat in the UK, our journey to the boat would take 1 to 2 hrs depending on traffic. If the traffic was bad, at least we would be sitting in a nice comfortable airconditioned car listening to Classic FM to soothe frayed tempers. To get anywhere in the Med takes 5-6 hours door to door and that is without factoring in delays; our last trip back from Palma took 8 ½ hrs. Then you’re going to spend a minimum of 2hrs squashed into a little aluminium tube with the great unwashed with their howling offspring kicking your seat back whilst you try to consume the unspeakable filth that airlines call food. Many a time I’ve sat on aircraft asking myself whether this is all worth it
Its going to cost you much more than you think. Its easy to convince yourself that Med boating is not going to cost you much more than UK boating because the marina costs can be on a par with the UK and you can get flights with Sleazyjet for pennies. The marina charges may look acceptable but that’s before they hit you with port charges, local council charges, electricity and water charges. Yes you can get cheap flights if you book months in advance for the second Wednesday in February but if you want flights around school holidays, half terms and bank holidays and particularly if you leave it until only a few weeks ahead of your trip, it’s going to cost hundreds of pounds for you and your family. Then there’s the cost of looking after your boat. You’ve gone to the Med for a 3 day long weekend. Do you want to spend hours in the baking sun doing those little maintenance jobs left over from last time whilst you could be on the water? In my case not, so you end up paying somebody else to do virtually every maintenance job because the little time you get on your boat is so precious. Then there is the issue of guardiennage. Stern-to berthing is not as secure as pontoon berthing and you can’t just pop down to the boat to double up the lines if a blow is forecast. Who’s going to keep an eye on fenders and lines during the months when you’re not on your boat and who’s going to keep it clean? So you end up paying somebody £300 a month to do that. Then there is the fuel cost. UK red diesel is expensive but, for the moment, not as expensive as white Med diesel. Then you’re going to have to pull your boat out of the water 3 times a year to clean the hull because of the aggressive fouling at several hundred pounds a go.
The boat itself is going to cost more because you need a passarelle, aircon, generator, and bimini to bring it up to ‘Med spec’ and when you sell it, it might fetch less or take ages to sell because it’s in an out of the way location
You can’t go anywhere. Berths in most popular areas are at a premium which means that there are few visitors berths which means that they get full during the summer and you can’t get in without having booked months in advance. So you either risk anchoring overnight or go back to your home berth every night. Even if you can find a visitors berth, its going to cost you between €70 and €200/night for a 15m berth
Dangerous critters are everywhere. There are more mosquitos in the Med than the UK and they just love juicy British flesh so get used to plastering yourself with repellent every evening. The sea is often infested with jellyfish so, even if you think they’re not going to hurt, the thought of swimming is off putting. Then, some of the beaches have colonies of sea urchins so you have to wear shoes for paddling. Maybe Southend beach is’nt so bad after all
There’s no social scene. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in 4 seasons we’ve ever met our neighbours in the boats next door and only once have we ever socialised with another boat. It’s obvious why. They’re using their boats as seldom as you are and the chances of actually meeting each other are miniscule and even if you do, they’re likely to speak some unintelligible foreign language. No longer can you get by with pigeon Franglais or Spanglish; you need Russian and Polish as well and maybe a spot of Hungarian too. Then, if you rent a berth, you’re always on the move anyway so by the time you’re on speaking terms, one or other of you has moved berths or marinas
The marinas and ports are all the same. 50 years ago there was’nt a tourist infrastructure in most of the Med. Then came the tourist explosion and with it pleasure boating, as a result of which dozens of marinas were built. Stick a breakwater out into the sea, builds a few pontoons behind and you’ve got a marina, the result of which is that most marinas look very similar and the surrounding development looks very similar too. There is little or no sense of boating tradition either, no ambience of just messing about in boats
The boating is too easy. As there are little or no tides and most of the coastline is fairly steep-to, boating is very much you hit what you see. Plug a waypoint into the plotter, flick the pilot on and just watch you don’t hit any sticky up bits. Yes the weather can be unexpectedly temperamental but you don’t get the same sense of achievement arriving in a new port as you would, say, first time in Guernsey, St Malo or the Scillies having braved fog, wind and intricate pilotage
I bet you’re thinking that if it’s so rubbish, why don’t we bring the boat back to the UK. Well, in time, we might just do that but for the moment, the balance of our thoughts are just about tilted towards Med boating because we feel we have’nt explored all the cruising areas we would like too yet. The best Med boating days are better than the best UK boating days because of the sun and clear warm water but you pay a price for that in more ways than one
