living aboard / cruising the rivers and canals of Europe

[sailscubasurf]

My girlfriend and I are considering buying a small cabin cruiser in Europe and exploring the river and canal systems for a few years.

Can anyone give me their experiences (costs for moorage, fuel prices, other fees) if they have done this and/or point me to some websites that discuss the monthly costs of doing this type of cruising?

Fair winds,

Gary Green

[haiqu]

It used to be simple, once.

The £200 Millionaire by Weston Martyr

[SV THIRD DAY]

Read the accounts of Richard Spindler the Owner of Latitude38 magazine.
He has done it for the last two summers and posts about it on facebook and in his magazine. He seems to post about just how Cheap and Easy it is...surprisingly so.

[valhalla360]

That's our plan but we keep getting sidetracked for various reasons on the Spanish med.


We picked up a small sail catamaran (Catalac 10m) with the idea we can pull the mast and the 3' draft and 15' beam should work fine most of the canal system.


Costs appear to be pretty cheap. If you just moor on the side of the canal cheap to free. If you need facilities there are some marinas and they don't appear to be too badly priced.


You do need a CENVI certification at least for the French Canals.

[barnakiel]

Our friends crossed N to S thru the French canals and it came up to 2k (EUR) a month (per two crew & the boat). Including the paperwork.

They said fuel and food were the biggest items. Docking was expensive where it was paid and it was mostly free along the way except in the popular places.

Cheers,
b.