This
is an edited version of our article recently published in Pacific
PowerBoat magazine
Travel
not to escape life but so life doesn’t escape you
You
don't have to cruise far in the Med to come across a yacht flying the
Silver Fern or Boxing Kangaroo flag from its yardarm. I say “yacht”
deliberately because the vast majority of Australasian Med cruisers
are found aboard sailing yachts (including many catamarans) and
rarely aboard motor vessels. Most of the cruisers we meet are retired
couples aged in their 50s on who've bought their new or pre-owned
boats in Europe.
Here there are many more boats for sale and
consequently more choice and cheaper prices.
Some cruisers plan to
ship or sail their boats home, although if you are planning this you
need to consider the total cost of getting your boat back to
Australasia including GST and duty.
There's also a far smaller number
of cruisers who've sailed their boats to the Med either as their
destination or as part of a circumnavigation. There used to be many
more circumnavigators but the piracy issues on Africa's north-east
coast have considerably reduced their numbers.
In
the Med you come across many other nationalities – in no special
order mainly Americans, Canadians, British, French, Germans,
Italians, Greeks, Dutch, Danish and Swedish, but over the years we've
found Australians the friendliest.
New
Zealand has some fantastic accessible cruising areas, particularly
the North Island's north-east coast and the South Island's
Marlborough Sounds (Blog posting coming soon on the Sounds). However
the total area of these destinations is quite limited and while it's
great to cruise back to favourite haunts you soon run out of new and
varied cruising destinations.
Australia
undoubtably has a very strong boating community, but quality cruising
(as opposed to day or weekend boating) seems to be pretty much
restricted to the east coast, particularly Queensland.
In this
tropical area the sea is nicely tepid, but unlike the Med swimming
opportunities can be limited by the dangers of sharks, crocodiles and
poisonous jelly fish.
Adventure and diversity
So
the first thing the Med offers is adventure, the ability to explore a
huge cruising area about 2,500 miles from west to east and 500 miles
north to south, with an area of 970,000 square miles containing about
3,300 islands and a coastline of 29,000 miles.
The Med's large enough
that it's divided into seven smaller seas: from west to east the
Alboran, Balearic, Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, Adriatic and Aegean
and each one offers months of cruising possibilities.
Twenty
one European, African and Middle-Eastern countries border the Med and
this fascinating diversity of cultures offers more cruising variety
and historical interest than anywhere else on our planet. Here you
can anchor in the same bay where at different times Persians,
Phoenecians, Greeks, Romans, Venetians, Crusaders and Ottomans have
anchored and many areas famous battles have been fought from ancient
times right up to WW 2.
If
natural scenery is your thing you can anchor near Santorini's Caldina
and ponder on one of the world's largest volcanic eruptions that
caused a massive tsunami, ending Crete's Minoan civilisation.
To
put the Med's cruising possibilities in perspective during nine
seasons we've spent 1,442 days aboard Envoy, cruised 16,300 miles
through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia,
visited about 100 islands and still only covered about 20 per cent of
the Med.
Great weather
The
Med's subtropical weather is the next appeal, particularly as its
summer coincides with Australasian winter. Although some cruisers
live aboard all-year-round spending the relatively mild Med winter in
a marina most choose to cruise from about May to September when you
can expect stable sunny weather without clouds or rain. Although it
can be hot with temperatures often reaching the mid 30s or more,
there's little humidity and the sun doesn't have the searing
ultra-violet levels we encounter. Predominantly northerly winds can
be strong often reaching mid-20 knots during afternoons, but then
mostly dying away overnight. In some areas like Croatia there are
notorious katabatic winds that cruisers need to be aware of as well
as thunderstorms throughout the Med, mostly from September on that
cause squalls and wind direction changes.
Stunning scenery
The
Med largely has stunning coastal scenery and many spectacular beaches
with mostly clean and clear waters with that famous turquoise colour
and nothing in the warm water that's going to hurt you. Yes many
beaches are quite crowded (as many are here) in the July to August
high season, but you can generally find your own quiet hideaway. With
some notable exceptions when cruising in Australia or New Zealand
there's not much of huge interest to see ashore whereas scattered
along the Med coast are countless interesting villages and towns each
contributing their own piece of history and unique points of
interest. Additionally you will find rustic beach-side tavernas, often
thrown up just for the summer in a way that would have our health and
safety inspectors pulling their hair out, but never lacking frosty
glasses full of ice-cold local beer.
Reasonable cost
Cruising
in the Med can be surprisingly economical as putting boat-related
costs aside (you would have those at home anyway) the costs of most
foods as well as eating out are significantly cheaper than found at
home. You also have the bonus of visiting interesting markets to buy
many of your fresh provisions. The ladies will soon discover that
shopping isn't restricted to the necessities of life with plenty of
retail therapy opportunities to explore.
Marinas for wintering over
are a similar cost to Australasia although summer casual marina
prices can be very expensive, typically NZ$80-180 per night. To keep
costs down it's best to anchor wherever possible or moor stern-to to
a town quayside being far cheaper and more atmospheric than marinas.
The eastern Med is generally cheaper than the western.
Safety
There's
no piracy in the Med and ashore is generally safe except in some of
the countries on the African and Middle-Eastern coast. Only in the
larger Italian and Spanish cities do visitors need to be aware of
pickpockets and theft from vehicles.
You
could cruise the Med for a lifetime and not see it all, but it's
certainly fun trying.
