We
have declared our first year of sailing the Med a success :
despite some rather unpleasant glitches, we had a wonderful time and
are eager to return.
Some
basic statistics
Days
on boat : 174
Distance
covered : 1175 nautical miles
Countries
/ Islands visited : Gibraltar (UK), Spain, Balearic islands
(Spain), Sardinia (Italy), Corsica (France)
Nights
at anchor vs. nights in port : 43 % anchor : 57 %
port
Average
cost : 18 Euros / night (total of all nights including free
nights at anchor)
Motor
hours : 182
Sailing :
approximately 45 % of time
How
did we keep costs so low ? Lots of free anchorages or cheap(er)
mooring buoys (29 Euros, with trash pick-up and water-taxi service to
shore), and liberal use of the municipal port system in the Balearic
islands : 43 euros / night if you reserve in advance using
their on-line system.
How
did we manage to sail 45 % of the time in the Med in the
summer ? We had no schedule and could choose when to sail. We
also don’t mind coasting along at 3 knots if we have the time. The
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 379 is a light, slippery boat designed for
light-wind sailing and, with our genakker for longer passages, we
managed to maintain a respectable sailing-to-motor ratio. We often
motor-sailed, with the motor at 1200 rpms, just to keep the speed up
and make it into port before sundown, but most of the propulsion was
by sail. Our diesel consumption on average was about 1.3 L / hour
thanks to the sails.
Highlights
The
weather, the warm turquoise waters, the cobalt blue of offshore
waters, pin-scented mountains that plunge into the sea, perched
villages, labyrinths of old stone streets, ancient civilizations...in
short, the Mediterranean !
Meeting
up with old friends and making new ones
Certain
areas of the Balearics (tainted by over-crowding)
Sardinia
and Corsica...SOOO looking forward to exploring these two
Mediterranean jewels next year.
Lowlights
The
diesel tank leak caused by the Jeanneau technician “repairing” our
gas gauge
The
spaghetti of chains and anchors that ensued when a 51-foot yacht
dragged its anchor onto us
The
over-crowding in the Balearic islands in July and August (that was
just stupid… but mostly unavoidable with our schedule)
A
few nights of extremely hot weather: 35°
C / 95°
F at 3 a.m. !
Plastic
pollution around the Balearics, even in marine reserves
Patrick’s
too-close encounter with a jellyfish. Nearly 6 months later, he
still has a scar.
What
worked
Lifting
keel. People often say that a lifting keel boat is useless in the
Mediterranean because the tides are so small. But we found our
lifting keel to be extremely useful on several occasions and even
allowed us to sit out a blow at anchor when everyone else had to
leave. Several ports around the Med have silting problems and all
have space limitations. If you tell the port agents that your draft
is only 1.3 meters / 4.3 feet (1.1 limit but we don’t like to tell
them that), you have more possibilities to squeeze in for the night.
A lifting keel allows you to anchor closer to the beach or, more
importantly, further into narrow calas and behind protective
headlands in more sheltered areas.
Anchoring.
This season we anchored more than ever and in many different
circumstances, including 30+ knot gusts. Early in the season, our
anchor dragged a couple of meters...no big deal but it taught us that
a 4:1 scope is not enough. An excellent technical description of
anchoring is available (in french) from our friend Pierre’s site,
and points out that your anchor is not fully effective with less than
a 5:1 scope. Now we believe.
Heat
management. This is critical in the Med in the summer. A few
necessities: 1) a bimini. In the Med, a bimini is a basic
life-support system. We learned to sail with it this year, even
taking in and letting out reefs with it in place. We need side
panels, however, and I’m going to have something made this winter
that will be a little bit classier than a series of towels I hung out
this year. 2) A wind scoop. These things
are little miracles that catch even the slightest breeze and make it
seem like a fan has been turned on high in the boat. I hope to get a
second one for next year. 3) Good
planning, as in planning to be at anchor where you can swim when it’s
hottest rather than being stuck in an airless port.
Tying
up stern-to-quay. Patrick perfected his stern-to maneuvers this year
while I perfected my acrobatics of jumping to the quay and handling
the lines. We were even able to back in and tie up with the dinghy
hanging from the back davits (hoisted up as high as possible). Our
dual rudders cause some nervous moments as we have to be perfectly
lined up with the berth to avoid snagging our neighbor’s tailed
line in the water. If the conditions were too dicey with cross
winds, we just pulled in bows-to and used a plank to get ashore. Our
plank techniques changed over the season and we finally have a set up
that is safe(ish) and easy to install.
Internet
communication. In the early part of the season, we used a Spanish
service called Wifi Away that gave us 20 GB of high-speed internet
for about $30 and was easily renewable via internet. In mid June,
Europe eliminated roaming charges so we could go back to using our
french telephone and internet service. We have never been so well
connected.
Weather
prediction. Although the weather in the Med can be capricious, we
were pleasantly surprised at how well the weather services predicted
sometimes crazy wind patterns. We used:
-
Grib files (Zygrib and OpenSkiron / WRF files)
-
Predictwind for longer passages
-
Wind guru for coastal details
Laser
rangefinder. This is one of the best gadgets we’ve ever bought.
The range finder helps you to choose a good mooring spot (those rocks
are actually further away than you think) and to verify that you
aren’t dragging; it helps to keep an eye on neighboring boats to
see if they are dragging; and we suspect we will be using it in the
next year or two to know when we are 3 boat-lengths away from the
dock, indicating where to drop our own anchor for stern-to mooring
when no tailing lines are available.
What
didn’t work
FlopperStopper. We tested out a new system to prevent excessive rolling at
anchor developed by a friend of ours, which I’ve described before.
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get the system to work on our
boat. The hull shape made the poles stick out at angles rather than
hanging vertically, and because the blades are not perfectly flat,
the upward motion caused a torque that twisted the poles and makes
the attachment weak. After one rather rolly night, we found the
blades lying at the bottom of the cove. We retrieved them but packed
up the system to send back for further modifications and testing.
Tripline. This winter I discussed how I intended to use a sunken trip
line to allow us to recover the anchor if it became stuck. I can’t
say that this didn’t work, but I never actually used it. In water
shallower than 6-7 meters, I can free dive if needed. In almost all
of the areas where we dropped anchor this summer, the water was so
clear you could see if there were any obstacles, and we always dove
around just after arriving to make sure there was nothing in our
swing radius that might cause problems. Once, we did get the chain
snagged under a flat rock, but the water was clear enough that we
could see which way to maneuver the boat to pull the chain free. And
in general, we had so many choices for anchoring that we never chose
to anchor in areas where the nautical guide suggested using a trip
line.
The
Balearics in July and August. The over-crowding and stupidity made
for some very disagreeable anchorages. Even if you found a cala with
good room to anchor, you could be sure that you would be surrounded
by morons anchoring too close or attempting to put their anchor on
top of yours before the afternoon was out. In general, the crowds
thinned out at sunset but the days could be very stressful. Many of
the boats are day rentals with “no permit needed” and clearly
with no instructions on how to anchor provided. For 4 meters of
water, these credit card skippers would put out 6 meters of chain and
wonder why you were staring nervously at them all afternoon. The
good news was that most of the renters never left the boat, so at
least you could yell at them when their anchors dragged. We had
anticipated that this would be a problem and had even thought of
putting Mareda in a port from 15 July to 15 August and just visiting
the island by land, but the costs of that were prohibitive. Instead,
we used the municipal port system (PortsIB) and reserved one week
stays at 3 different marinas, with several days in between for
getting to the next port and anchoring out to remind ourselves of why
we wanted to be in port. Like magic, around the 15th
of August, the crowds evaporated and we could begin enjoying
anchoring again.
Wrap-up
Neither
of us has ever been so eager to resume cruising. Last year there was
a bit of trepidation about starting our first year in the Med: the
capricious weather, the Balearics in the summer and over-crowding in
general, learning new “Med techniques” of anchoring and port
maneuvers. With those initial “getting-to-know-you” jitters
behind us and having already had a preview of things to come next
year for a tour of Corsica and Sardinia, we’re counting the days
until our return !
