Cruising in the winter in the Southern Med – Doable or not?

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by PhilDuhs

Looks perfect! What's the water temp? When was it last swimmable?

This morning .
I had a quick dip before breakfast. I am still diving to check our anchor reasonably comfortably (no wetsuit) so I guess water temp must be around 18-19 still.

[CookiesnTequila]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

This morning .
I had a quick dip before breakfast. I am still diving to check our anchor reasonably comfortably (no wetsuit) so I guess water temp must be around 18-19 still.

I had a quick slip on the ice on my way to my car this morning! The day before yesterday I had to shovel the walkway for an hour and cancel a trip to the gym because we couldn't get the car out of our driveway!

We are soooo envious!!!

We know what we're doing next winter - and there's no shovel involved!!

[Anto]

Take a look also to these good sites for the med weather

Poseidon System

MARINA Platform Forecast

Sea surface temperature | Consorzio LaMMA

EuroWEATHER - Weather report, weather forecasts and meteorological conditions in Italy, Europe and Mediterranean

[FilBrown]

I believe there is a rally from the Med to the Red Sea (Hurgarda) at the end of the season.
It's quite popular as the temperature is around 24 - 28 in the winter.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Well, we have had the "good" and now the first taste of the "bad" for the season is coming up on Wednesday - wind in the high 30's with gusts close to 50 knots predicted.

This is why almost all cruising boats in the Aegean retreat to marinas for the winter months.

On the positive side it is still T-shirt and shorts temperature - not bad with a third of the winter almost over .

[PhilDuhs]

Where are you planning to be when that blows through?

[Prairie Chicken]

Noelex hasn't piped up here but he & his Mermaid are still out there, swimming, & photographing their anchor. I think he said water temp of 18--sounds pretty good to a Canadian.

The one winter I spent in the Med was partly on/partly off the boat. Definitely beautiful days, but nasty storms too. Having the option of being tied to the concrete was pretty nice and for some reason the storms always seem to last for three days when they hit (where we are at least). If you're agreeable to taking a greatly reduced-in-price mooring frequently, or for a short period of time in various places, I think winters could be lovely & the best part would be the absence of crowds. Sep/Oct is perhaps the best time, when the wx is not so hot but still good, & most of the tourists have already left.

Winter in the Med means wind & rain; not snow & ice, and the winter is much shorter than we are used to! Late February things are getting nicer & by Easter the tourists are returning!

[Palarran]

Prairie Chicken, I don't think it was ever meant to be a secret but was. Seaworthy Lass is Noelex's Mermaid.


I would imagine winters being quite fun about 50% of the time and boring the other 50%. Kind of the way it is at home.

[Prairie Chicken]

Thanks Palarran, I had no idea! I guess I'd never connected the dots, but the secret is out now.

S Lass, those images look very nice compared to our cold, drab landscape here. I'm just happy we don't have snow!

[Kenomac]

Don't feel you're all alone Prairie, I just figured it out myself a week ago.

No snow here in Northern Massachusetts either. Temps 20 degrees F higher than normal over the past few weeks and going forward.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Don't feel you're all alone Prairie, I just figured it out myself a week ago.

Ken!
When I signed off a PM to you months ago as "The Mermaid", didn't that give you a little clue .

SWL

[carstenb]

Lassie - you are The Mermaid, but htere are many other mermaids about. Here inthe Baltic, up between Gotland and the Sedish mainland is an island called the Blå Jungfrau, which is where the Baltic mermaids hang out (according to local legend)

Well to be fair, local legend also says it is the hangout of swedish virgins, other legend says it is the hangout of witches.

mermaids, virgins witches - take your choice!

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by carstenb

mermaids, virgins witches - take your choice!

Well in my case you can only discard the second option .

SWL xxx

(And the PM to Ken was regarding anchoring and underwater photography )

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Well in my case you can only discard the second option .

SWL xxx

(And the PM to Ken was regarding anchoring and underwater photography )

Well lots of Swedes have searched high and low on that island for virgins and not found any.

Could that be a commentary on the number of virgins in Sweden?

[Kenomac]

Seaworthy Mermaid,

Mrs. Mac read todays headlines regarding the ferry on fire and the container ship requiring assistance in the Agean over the past couple of days. Where are you currently anchored, or did you take a mooring for a few days?

She also asked what we'd do when we go full time cruising, so I suggested heading over to the Canary islands for the winter months for nicer weather then heading back up into the Med. Is this a viable plan? She liked the idea, so I guess we're making progress here on the home front. At least she's now considering the full time approach. She already knows about most of the locations where us English speaking folks tend to head for the winter like Southern Sicily, but she didn't like the idea of being stuck in one place.

Ken