Around the Mediterranean Coast 

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Weather Sites
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France

FRENCH COAST ST RAPHAEL TO SPANISH BORDER SPRING/SUMMER 2001

Reports from Dick Blamey, Yacht "SANJOLA"

1.0 Introduction.

We visited 25 ports in France from St Raphael to the Spanish boarder over a 6 month period last year. Below they are listed with a sentence or two on each.

2.0 General.

France is easy but not cheap. Heikell has it all, but better and cheaper is a French 'Livre de Board'. Cost about £10 and available everywhere. French charts are good and readily available.

3.0 Dangers.

The dreaded Mistral. All the year around, less in Summer. The French weather forecasts are very good and they seem to understand it now, so listen to the forecasts. Also French men fishing everywhere.

4.0 Procedures.

Either ring or call up on channel 16/9 to the 'Capitainerie' a few hours before arrival, or just arrive. Ask for one night and on arrival go to the office and ask for more if you need it. They tend to keep your boat papers to ensure that you pay up. Paying in advance is also OK. They are often reluctant to take bookings but we never had a problem getting in where we wanted.

Prices vary enormously. If you want to see the jet set places then you will need to cough up the necessary readies. The further East you go the less likely to have help with lines on arrival.

5.0 Ports Visited.

Santa Lucia
Modern, very nice, lots of shops and restaurants in walking distance. Good. St Raphael Centre of town. Very interesting, next to a nice beach. Good.

Frejus
Brand new Marina in old Roman town busy but OK.

St Aygulf
Very nice but small place. We ran aground so are biased. Recommended provided that you do not run aground.

St Tropez
Excellent, expensive,. Would not fancy it in high season. Nudie beach, very lux and jet set. A must.

St Maxime
Beautiful, classic old French chic. Not many visitors places. Highly recommended. We saw 54 knots of Mistral in the harbour. Frightening but no problem.

Port Grimaud. Very French, very interesting, a bit of a poor mans' Venice. Parked the boat in someone's back garden. Recommended.

Cavalaire sur Mer.

OK nice town modern marina no probs.

Bormes les Mimosas.

Nice safe marina, quite modern. Excellent old village to visit thus recommended.

Porquerolles.

Beautiful, beautiful island. Nature reserve. Highly recommended.

Port Cros

Even better. Lunch at the 'Le Manoir', a very famous French restaurant. Will set you back about a hundred quid for two! We went for lunch and stayed for a week. Very highly recommended.

Plage d'Argent

Anchorage off Porquerolles. Excellent. Recommended.

Port Man
Anchorage off Port Cros Island. Excellent. Highly recommended.

Hyeres Plage
Science fiction.

Bandol
Lovely place., nice old French town.

Cassis
Another excellent port, tied up next to some classic French fishing boats, magical. Highly recommenced if you can get in.

Port Miou
In the centre of the famous and spectacular 'Callanques', however it is a plastic graveyard and a disgrace to this beautiful area.

Callanques
highly recommended but not Port Miou.

Marseilles Vieux Port.
Opera. Extract from our log 'Sadly the opera house is right in the middle of the red light district, and as I don't like opera, I was forced to spend the evening wandering around the naughty bars. Hands in my pockets of course. Dreadful.' Super city, highly recommended.

Carry Le Rouet.
Nice little French classic Provencal town. Small and may be difficult to find a place. Recommended.

Sausset les Pins
Pure Peter Mayle. Log extract. 'They decided to have a Fete right on the quay where we were tied up. Put up 100 tables in a howling Mistral wind, stapling the paper plates to the wood to stop them blowing away. A Rock n' Roll band turned up and played the whole evening. As the band is funded by the local council and the dancing is outdoors on the quay, every one turns up. Young folks, mums, dads, grannies, granddads, village cats and dogs all out there, Dancin' to the Jail House Rock.- Amazing. We lived in this village 30 years ago and then it was 'Tango' and 'Slow Foxtrot'. So things have moved on a bit ' Highly recommended.

St Maries de la Mer
Famous church on the Camargue. Tourist trap, but very good. Nice beach next to marina. Recommended.

Port Camargue
Very large modern French Marina. Safe, good. All services. OK.

Sete
Traditional French Port. Very interesting but tatty. More restaurants per square metre than any where I have seen. Good walks and Foodies paradise. Highly recommended.

Cap d'Agde
Huge modern marina, room in August and jumpin'. Nudie beach. Extract from log: 'I know that you have all been waiting for tales of the skinny dipping at the naturist camp at Cap d' Agde. Well, we moored up 200 metres off the beach and went ashore in the tender to check out the scenery. On arrival, trousers were dropped so as not to appear conspicuous. Jennifer was left in charge of the Yacht and Helen stayed to guard the tender which was by this time completely surrounded by nudes. Alan, Thomas and I went for a walk along the beach to, you know, stretch our legs. All I will say is that I now know where all the missing curtain rings are hanging. We came back to rescue Helen to find that she had been scolded by the beach police for having an outboard motor on what is now seen as, a environmentally sensitive area. Well, I can confirm that there were some extremely sensitive areas showing on that beach. Not recommended for the faint hearted I can tell you.' Highly Recommended.

Port Leucate
Strange place, but OK. Very pretty but exposed. OK.

Argeles.
Beginning of Spanish style marina help. Very nice little place. OK.

Banyuls
Beautiful place. Help with ropes etc. Very good but may depend when you are here. Extract from log: Catalonia. These are folks who live in both France and Spain at the Southern end of Pyrenees mountains. Neither the French nor Spanish seem to like 'em much, so, to make their presence felt, they blow up tourists. Not us though, German boat, French registration, Brit Captain ……..nah…….no chance…….…BOOM!
What nobody had told us is that they are beautiful people. Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez would not turn heads here. What is more, they don't just have Fete days like the rest of France, but what is called a 'Fete Majeur' ie a major fete. A whole week of eating, drinking, fighting and shagging - magical.

Banyuls,
end August, highly recommended. The only bad feature was the 'Sardanes' dancing. This is some strange traditional dance and takes place between 4pm and Pastis time (5:45). Not a pretty sight, the lovely people must have been sleeping off their Siestas. But I now know where Burl Ives got the inspiration for his song 'The Ugly Bugs Ball'.

6.0 French Riviera
We visited Cannes, Nice and Cap Ferat by train. All very rich and jet set. Cannes film festival was amazing. The place was festooned with Pam Anderson look a likes almost entirely constructed from silicone. Nice work if you can get it but not in my price bracket.

7.0 Conclusions.
Extract from log on France: We covered about 500 miles in French waters and enjoyed every moment of it. Excellent food, wine and beautiful people, even some with clothes on.
The French 'Capitainerie' system can only said to be excellent. The ports and Marinas are well organised and we had no difficulty in finding places, even in the high season. In all cases, the marina organisers went out of their way to be helpful.
Costs for the 42 foot Yacht varied between £15 and £29 in a random manner. In every case, electricity and water was provided on the quay, so, well, expensive say some, but for us, cheaper than living in a house with a car in London.
I gave France 18/20. They lost one point for the dreadful mobile phone system. I was sold a phone that would not do E mail which was changed for a 2nd hand one with a sim card that was not capable of E mail. In St Raphael I was sold a cable that did not work. In spite of help from very talented friends in Paris, I never managed to E mail from the boat. In Spain, I ditched the French SFR sim and had E mail up and running within 2 days with a Spanish card.
They lost the second point for the steaming heaps of dog s**t . It is everywhere. There seems to be no law against it. French dogs are perfectly within their rights to strain and dump up a pile on every street corner, marina, park, patch of grass or beach. I love France and will probably finish up living there but not until they change the law so that dogs can be shot on sight for crapping in public.
Cap'n Dicko 'n Jen. SANJOLA, C13, Marina Port Vell. 3/2/02

 Spain

Barcelona. Entered outer harbour for the long pull up to Port Vell well covered by two pilot books Electronic charts accurate to 1 metre, and a French detailed chart - all 2001 vintage. But there is a great concrete lifting road bridge (18.5m) right across the harbour not shown on any of them! Dick Blamey, 27/10/01

Barcelona – There is a useful web page that gives some very useful web links for those over wintering in Barcelona: mainly transport and what to do/eat; at http://pinacolada.cc/barcelona/  Matthew Bickerton,  S/Y Pina Colada of Harwich, 29/04/05

Cadaques - All anchoring, including and most especially in Port Ligat between Rosas Bay and Cabo Creus is now prohibited - the Area is a Marine Reserve.

Cadaques Bay itself is excluded, but apart from the small exposed cala in
the extreme SW corner, all other areas are buoyed off and designated as
access, bathing or mooring areas, the moorings being administered by the
Club Nautico - you will be directed to a suitable buoy by one of their ribs.
However, these cost 30euros/Night <10m increasing in stages to 50euros/night >12m and are untenable in anything over F3/4 from the southern sector.

There are 40 - 50 well sheltered, heavy duty buoys in Port Lligat, but use
of these requires a permit - no idea how one is obtained.  Bob and Lesley Carlisle, 15/06/05

Mallorca – Alcudia Marina has free showers.  Berthing call: ch.9  5 restaurants inside the marina.  Pollencia YC offers facilities to non members.  10% discount available for CA members.  Ian Foster, HLR, 31/01/05

Weather forecasts in Med Spain - This summer we spent July to October, with a break in September, in Mallorca. One of the puzzles while there was to find a weather forecast. First I met an Amercian fleet met. sailor who's comments were " if you say variable 2 to 4, you be right 80% of the time , mostly you have a sea breeze inside 5 miles."

The advice of the marina users was that the Spanish forecast is only good for 6 hours. So we tried the Navtex. Well, when it worked, Cabo de Nao produced two forecasts a day, reasonably accrurate. The down side was that we had a number of days off air and a number of times, with no warning. The problem lasted long enough for me to doubt if the navtex was working. Eventually I gave up trying to filter out any stations and then I was able to pickup a number of Area 2 as well as 3 stations, even Niton was readable on some nights! Often one of the other stations would warn that the Spanish service was down.

We had problems with trying to receive SSB forecasts, lots of interference, and often RT overlapping the coast station broadcasts. Radio discipline seems non existent, with use of all channels, often no call signs and no "over" or "out". This is not just a Spainish problem as often the voices are clearly British, and owners, or professional crew. However, the free for all often produced interesting results with four or more boats on the same channel, and even a distress call(mayday) for a weather forecast!

Next season we'll be using weather fax and hope to report back on its success or other wise. We have a UK mobile phone and connected it to a laptop, then we dial out to the UK to use the net. Provided we just receive and send mail call costs average about £1 a week, and all from the comfort of the chart table. Tech bit, its an IBM Thinkpad, 486 at 75 hzt, with 12 M mem. and 500 M disk running windows 95. The phone is a Nokia 3110, and we use Nokia Data suite software for the connection to Prestel ISP. Hope some finds the above of some use. Tom Webber, currently beached in UK, feeling the cold! 19/11/98

Italy

Porto di Roma  - People contemplating spending time here may like to see the results of a recently carried out survey of over-wintering berth-holders during the 2004/5: http://www.deckersailing.com/crusing_guides/romesurvey.pdf .

If you do stay, another site covering local services and attractions may be of use: http://pinacolada.cc/rome/  Matthew Bickerton, S/Y Pina Colada of Harwich, 29/04/05

Isla Procida (next to Ischia) - Members may like to know that the new marina on the Isla Procida is now open.  (Heikell page 183, 6th ed.). Two floating pontoons with about 200 mainly visitors' berths have been established in the East harbour with mooring lines tailed to the pontoons; water and electricity to all berths. Additional pontoons will follow in future phases. There is a fuel berth but no hard standing or hoist. Good shelter with no significant ferry wash. Cost per night for our 11.5m  Moody (May 28/29/30 2005) was eu55.00. New toilet/shower facilities are in portacabins; keys from the office. To book ahead call 081.896.9668 or mobile 335.820.3636. The phone number for the HM given in Heikell is of no use for marina users.

Otranto Lat: 40N09 Long: 18E29.5 Imray Adriatic Pilot: 3rd Edition. p424/5 Depths by fuel jetty are greater than shown - near 2m - but service not swift - you have to find which cafe the man is using. The main breakwater is being extended and more room is already available. Mike Davey, Lady Babit, 12/06/01

Villanova Lat: 40N47.5 Long: 17E35.3 Imray Adriatic Pilot: 3rd Edition. p421/422 Generally shallower than shown on chartlet. The only real option is to anchor as shown or to pick up one of the two laid buoys in 2 metres. Nevertheless we were glad to find a haven after a rough passage from Dubrovnik on our way to Brindisi. Mike Davey, Lady Babit, 12/06/01

Coppola Pintemare 40deg 59secN; 13deg 58secE has a shallow entrance. The area inside the sea walls is sanded to a depth of 1.65m. The actual mooring area is much deeper, but the shallows cannot be avoided. Andrew Balint 12/9/99

Torre del Greco 40deg 47secN; 14deg 22sec E seems to have been "privatised". There is no longer a security gate, and the pontoons are controlled by separate entities, running 1-3 pontoons each. Andrew Balint 12/9/99

Cetraro Harbour - The new quay mentioned in Heikell is not as shown but runs southeast to northwest with a gap theoretically enclosing a section of the harbour to be the port touristico. On the night of 12th June 2005, with less than a half metre southerly swell boats tied alongside the quay were subject to constant rolling and snatching. All of the stern to moorings are occupied by local boats so there is no alternative mooring that we could see. With this minimal swell some boats came close to damage as they rolled under an overhang on the quay. An article in Practical Boatowner November 2004 by Brenda Davison describes the damage sustained by many boats riding out a storm here but in my opinion less severe weather could cause damage and if not, certainly a very poor nights sleep.

I would advise any member considering the harbour to exercise caution and if
possible go for the longer trip down to Vibo Valentia.
Chris & Janet Wragg; 13/06/05

Cagliari. - This new marina is managed by the CA HLR, Enrico Deplano. It is situated in the harbour at Cagliari, at the eastern end, beyond the Lega Navale, right by the root of the Molo Nuovo di Levante.

Details are that there are three new Martini pontoons 110 metres long, taking boats up to20 m, with water and electricity,  VHF  channel 74. In time, I am sure that Enrico will add more facilities. There is  Supermarket shopping a trolley walk away and other food shops reasonably close. It will be more secure in all senses  than other possible moorings in the harbour at Cagliari, It will meet a need in the area for good marina facilities. Enrico will be happy to see CA members.

From past experience I, and others, will know how helpful Enrico is. I am sure that his marina will be run in the same helpful and friendly manner. He has worked very hard to get this venture up and running and deserves all the support that we can give to him.

Please mention this new venture to others, even non CA members!! Frank Singleton; 1/06/05

Porto Ulisses - There is now an official charge of €20 (I think irrespective of length); clean showers and toilets; water but no electricity; easy access to fuel quay with cans but depth of only 1.7 metres alongside and two good sized laid lines per boat. The town is being cleaned up and there is a small Sisa supermarket plus other small shops and plenty of fish shops near the harbour. I can make no comment on the shelter as it was flat calm when we were there but the lines are strong and the harbour wall is very high. Chris Wragg, 23/06/05

Sardinia

Weather in the western mediterranean. I have found several internet sources useful for weather which I would like to share. We have only been cruising here for one summer - but have got a lot of local help to track down the best sites - and these are filtered from the ones recommended to us by marina offices. In each case - they are the one that they said was the best - although we have followed several to test them out. I cannot vouch for their accuracy, but they are detailed - and have given us a pretty good reflection of the weather - even for 3 days out.
They are all internet based - but I have been picking them up through a mobile phone link - the same speed as ssb etc - so they do work. No harm in visiting an Internet café for passage planning or to browse to select your favourite bits of them for access later from the boat.
For the whole Med, and indeed as far as I can see for a majority of the world - try www.weatheronline.co.uk . They have 3 day sailing forecasts AND a further 3 day outlook. They also have land forecasts - and in fact I use this a lot when sailing in the UK for the big picture. Very useful for passage planning as a supplement to the weather fax pages.
In Spanish coastal waters try the Spanish meteo site - www.inm.es . You should spend a bit of time getting used to it. It is in Spanish but has a useful few pages of translation of terms. It gives very detailed coastal forecasts (for example the Balearic coast is divided into 10 forecast areas) and includes wind strength and sea state for the following 24 hours
For other European waters I have been recommended www.eurometeo.com by the Italian harbour masters. I have only just started to use it but again it seems very detailed and gives a 3 day forecast.
Finally, one of my favourite sites - but one that seems somewhat underused is www.yacht-links.net - this is a site with lots of links - and the weather page allows you to link to several sites - including being able to pick up the pressure charts from 0 to 120 hours from the UK met office, just like they come out over the weather fax.
Let me know how you get on by visiting www.yachtdorado.com and using the email link to contact me - or email
David Fry, Yacht: Dorado, 12/07/02 Poetta.

Turkey

Bozcaada Limani -  Heading for the Dardenelles:  Turkish Waters and Cyprus Pilot; 6th edition, pp 88-89. Visited 23-26.6.05  The north breakwater has been developed into a quay, so it is possible to  moor bows-to or stern-to or even alongside.  Water and electricity are available.  Berthing charge is YTL 25/night.  Electricity and water YTL 5/night each.  It's a delightful place with good shelter. Rachel and Paul Chandler, S/Y Lynn Rival; 26/06/05

Turgutreis - Last winter we left Ariadne at Dogus Marina in Turgutreis, which is about 15 miles NW of Bodrum.  It was recommended to us by a Frenchman who said it was good and much cheaper than Bodrum.

We found it an excellent marina.  The service from outside staff is assiduous and friendly.  They check up on their boats all the time and are a great help getting in and out.  The office staff could not have been nicer, while the facilities, including a swimming pool, were as good as any we have met anywhere.  Other users of the marina were equally complimentary. They even provided free access to the internet for an hour a day for marina users.

Charges for a stay of a few days seemed quite high:  27 Euros per day for our 44ft boat.  But other boats had special deals for longer stays.  We had a special deal for the winter and paid 1050 Euros to have the boat ashore for 7 months from 1 September until 1 April, including the costs of hauling out and refloating.

Turgutreis is a small, agreeable  town with a decent lokanta (family-run restaurant) in which we ate regularly and there are very good supermarkets. It is 20 minutes further from Bodrum airport by taxi than Bodrum itself.
Police and customs are next to the marina and again very helpful (although on the day we left the harbour police were away and I had to go to Bodrum to get clearance out of Turkey).

We highly recommend the services of Tuncar Marine who worked on our boat. We had to have rusted water and fuel tanks replaced,  repairs carried out to our teak deck and our genoa replaced  (by a firm called UK Sailmakers!). Prices for special items and routine winter service were reasonable, lower than in Greece, and the work was carried out well and very efficiently. Tuncar Marine is a Volvo agent.  Again, the people we dealt with could not have been more friendly and co-operative.  They sent us photos by email of any major repair that had to be done, and of work before and after. Tuncar Marine also work in Bodrum and in Yalikavak Marina some 10 miles further north. – Dick Taverne, email, 14.04.05

Bodrum – Yatlift Yard.  This is probably the only suitable yard to store a sailing boat for the winter in the Bodrum area. I have negotiated a 10% discount for CA members on the following rates, though the discount will only be allowed to those members that specifically claim the discount on arrival. All calculations are made on Euros per Square Metre, based on the LOA x Beam measurements.

Launch & Recovery including scrub off:        0-20 tons: €  9.25 per m2.

                                                                        20-70 tons: €11.00 per m2.

 Storage

Between 1^st June and 15^th September a further 50% discount will be made on the above rates. These rates apply for the period 2005 – 2006 only, after which they may be subject to normal inflationary increases.

The address is: Yat Lift, Icmeler, 48400 Bodrum, Turkey. Gunhan Ozakat is the yard manager and can be faxed on: +90.252.3167620, Phoned on +90.252.3167842, e-mailed on , and he speaks excellent English, though Jodie Phillips who is the technical manager has the edge having spent twenty plus years in Australia. She can be contacted on the same fax & phone, but has her own e-mail address of . Their Web-Site is: http://www.yatlift.com. Fuller advice and comment in the R/F. Peter Rigby, Miss Rhodesia, 29/07/05

Kemer -  British yacht Liahona clearing out for Girne planned to sail at 0500hrs
to reach Girne in daylight.  Passport police refused to stamp passports
after 1700hrs or before 0830hrs and insisted yacht must depart
immediately or risk arrest by coastguard.  Issue of police compromising
a vessel's safety will be taken up with Kemer HLR Hasan Kaçmaz. Michael Manton 13/06/05

Croatia

Croatia  - Members cruising here for a season or more may wish to know of a service that started in 2005. For eu139,00 the policy gives a year's cover against engine failure, prop fouling, jump starts, fuel delivery, and grounding.  They have bases  in Umag, Punat, Sukosan, Kremik and Korcula and operate 24h a day, 7 days a week during the whole season.  For more info check out their website www.seatow-europe.com.  Peter Ibbotson, 08/08/05

Dubrovnik Marina - Lat: 42N40.2 Long: 18E07.8 Imray Adriatic Pilot: 3rd Edition. p58/59 Staff and services excellent. A beautiful and restful spot particularly if you have a berth towards the river out of the local katabatics and road noise. Mike Davey, Lady Babit, 12/06/01

Gruz  - Lat: 42N39.4 Long: 18E05.5
Imray Adriatic Pilot: 3rd Edition. p57/58 Very helpful harbour police and immigration. No charge for waiting while clearing out. Impressive new road bridge under construction is a key new day mark for the approaches to Gruz and to Dubrovnik marina. Mike Davey, Lady Babit, 12/06/01

Korcula - Lat: 42N39.4 Long: 17E08.4 Imray Adriatic Pilot: 3rd Edition. p102 The West quay gives better shelter in a strong southerly than the marina to the East of town, and we didn't have to pay. Mike Davey, Lady Babit, 12/06/01

 
Greece

Kalamata – All yachts < 25m must go to marina.  Port Police have poor reputation but are helpful if papers in order. No transit log required for boats < 10m.  Note entrance dangerous in southerly gales.

Services, shops, restaurants all available with buses to town. Trevor Field, HLR, 31.01.05

Nidri