Inexpensive in the Mediterranean

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by jesperrosenberg

Because I now live in Europe, I want to sail my 44 foot sailboat from Caribbean to the Mediterranean Sea so I can have more time cruising...

I've been in the Mediterranean Sea for the past 6 years: Ionian, Croatia, Aegean, Cyclades. My advice would be to stop on the way in the Canary Islands.

[pablothesailor]

Originally Posted by jim_thomsen

Smir is a fine marina but there is really very little there. It would be fine if it was your base for other travels, but I think it may be a lonely place for 6 months. In Spain Almerimar is still a good deal I think. A couple of years ago our cost, for a winter stay was less than US$10 a day. It's also not really close to anything but there is a good size cruiser community there over the winter. There are a few pictures on our website: Home Page
Enjoy the Med...it's great!

I would go along with these comments, ive been to Marina Smir 3 times in the last few months, It was great for a short stay, there is only one bar which is not cheap, I think a pint of beer was 6 euros?? There really is not much to do unless you intend to travel on inland trips from there? So, a short stay Im sure would be great and I guess you could barter with them over the price as there are never that many boats there! Ive heard Almerimar on the Costa Almeria, Spain, is good value and there is a bit more to do.......good luck!

[jesperrosenberg]

Originally Posted by nigelmercier

I've been in the Mediterranean Sea for the past 6 years: Ionian, Croatia, Aegean, Cyclades. My advice would be to stop on the way in the Canary Islands.

Nigel,

I was thinking about the Canary Islands too, how are the prices in the marinas if I want to leave my boat for a longer period?

Thanks for the post

– Jesper

[Katiusha]

If you don't mind sailing all the way to Eastern Med, Turkey has a good setup for leaving the boat (and sailing it too .

Marmaris Yacht Marin is in the middle of Turkish "Riviera" and they are the cheapest: for us, a 35' boat, price per month is 200 EUR and for a year contract it's 11 months (2200 EUR). The marina itself has a solid live-aboard community with frequent events organized, including free trips to Istanbul. Also included swimming pool, sauna, fitness, library, etc.

Right outside the marina there is a plethora of gorgeous places to sail to from 1-2 hours to 1 day, history behind every rock (castles, churches, mosques, ancient ruins, etc), good cheap food in the markets ("organic" as smaller growers don't have money for chemicals), people who value relationships and hospitality.

Plus the permit, i.e. transit log, for Turkey for 1 year is 30-50 EUR (depending on whether the owner is on board) plus 15-35 EUR agent fee plus 10-45 EUR visa (depending on the country).

One thing you'll spend money on if you like seaside restaurants is dinners, where you would pay between 10-25 EUR for 1 person for dinner not including alcohol.

Oh, alcohol, if that interests you, is plenty expensive. A lot of cruisers even sneak into Greece to buy it.

Turkey also has advantage of multitude of charter flights from Europe, which makes the travel very cheap.

But it's a far way from Gibraltar...

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by jesperrosenberg

I was thinking about the Canary Islands too, how are the prices in the marinas if I want to leave my boat for a longer period?

Certainly cheaper than the Western Med, and about the same as Greece. There is no VAT there, so everything is cheaper - diesel is €0.75 a litre!

[gauvins]

I have a Canadian registered 13M steel cutter. We made the passage from Quebec to Europe in 2003. Since then we spend the summers on the Med, touching Tunisia (basically) every year to avoid VAT.

There is no way we could afford marinas on a regular basis. Daily rates can easily fetch 100 euros per night in high season. We anchor (not a single day at the marina this past Summer - solar panels and desalinator) and winter on the hard here and there. Here being usually Navy Service, near the unsightly Fos gulf. There are 1000+ boats there, with shipchandler, paint shop, mechanics on site. Their fee schedule is extremely reasonable (under 3k/y).

We've also wintered on the hard in Greece (Lavrion), Tunisia (Bizerte -- Hammamet is probably a much better choice) and Sardinia (Marina del Sole in Cagliari). On the water in Bordeaux, France.

Navy service is by far the best location for us, as long as you consider this place as a parking -- you do NOT want to stay there as either the Mistral or the mosquitos will drive you nuts.

Cagliari is a lovely and very convenient base. If you liveaboard or spend lots of time on the water, it could make lots of sense (several people, most from the UK, call this place home). This is our "alternate", Navy Service being where we have work done on our boat every other year or so.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Turkey has the best price/value relationship for berthing and other marine services of any place in the Med, in my opinion.

Marinas are generally very modern and very high quality, very well managed. And they are very cheap compared to other places in the Med or even compared to the U.S.

And the Turkish Aegean coast is one of the most beautiful and interesting cruising areas I have ever seen.

Besides that, you have good transport infrastructure and cheap flights to other European countries.

Besides that, you have very good local food, very friendly people, low crime rate, and in general everything is very civilized and yet very inexpensive.

Can't really go wrong with Turkey.

+1 for turkey

[itdave5]

Hi guys at the minute we are in Almerimar on the south coast of spain.
It is very cheap and very nice and we may well spend the winbter here. it is 1004 euros for a 11.5m boat from end of October to 1st of March.
About half what we were paying in Italy and the coast line is about twicw as interesting.
Morrocco is a no go area. I've heard some horror stories from people who stayed there.
Any how good winds to you all.

[LifePart2]

For a catamaran, the cheapest place on the Iberian penisula seems to be Portimao in Portugal. For our Leopard 42 the price quoted is 2150 Euros for 6 months, including all taxes. Reason for this is that they don't charge the normal 50% surcharge over the monohull rate during the low season!

And it is quite a nice place too! It is where we are at the moment.

[simonmd]

Interesting, I liked Portimao when i stopped there earlier this year, looked very shealtered. I know they have internet in the main office but is there any WIFI or TV hookup?

[LifePart2]

In the office there is a computer desk which will allow two laptops to be plugged in, as you say. There is no marina wifi. There is wifi provided by one of the telecom companies, but for that you have to pay. Don't know how good the speed is on that.

Certainly out in the anchorage it is abysmal. However, in the anchorage, if you park yourself close enough to the Club Nau restaurant on the beach and have a wifi booster, you can hook into their free wifi at variable speeds. Sometimes it is actually quite good, at other times desperately slow.

Personally I use a Vodafone sim card in my phone, buy a data plan (pay as you go) and use that as a wifi hotspot for my laptop. Make sure you have a European unlocked phone as the North American ones are on a different radio and won't get anything faster than Edge out here.

I see a couple of boats with big TV dishes on the pontoon next to them. Don't know the story on those, if they are rented, or owned or what. I don't think there is an actual cable TV system across the marina.

Hope that helps :-)

[simonmd]

Many thanks, very informative.

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by itdave5

............
Morrocco is a no go area. I've heard some horror stories from people who stayed there.
........

When did the people who told you the horror stories of Morocco visit there? Recent horror stores? Friends stopped there Nov 2009 for 3 weeks and had only positive comments. Has the situation there deteriorated in the past 2 years? If so, in what way?

Judy
S/V BeBe

[st599]

Originally Posted by simonmd

Stop believing everything you see on CNN. Morocco is fine and will stay that way. The present King of Morocco is well liked and respected and the country and it's people are doing well. I've visited a few times in the past year and spoken to many locals, they all are very positive about the countries future.

There was bit of trouble in Northern Island a few weeks ago, should we all avoid the UK based on that?

There's trouble in Northern Ireland every marching season.

S'mir is an awesome place, and a taxi ride takes you into the Souks of Tetouan.

[swagman]

It is not easy getting a handle of what place might be the best value, as we've all got differing ideas on what we want from a winter berth and therefore we'll pick out aspects that suit us but may not suit others........

We spent some time cruising the Med in 2005/6/7 and (please do remember this was then) if we had to list the countries in order of cost for a good quality marina in the countries we visited when getting quotes for winter berthing in order from low to high cost, it would be a bit like this.

1. Egypt
2. Israel
3. Turkey
4. Greece
5. Spanish mainland
6. France
7. Italy
8. Croatia
9. Balearics

Hope this helps.

JOHN