One season in the Med

[Palarran]

If you only had one season (May to Oct) to cruise the Meditterreanean, how would you do it and where would you go. My sail dream is to make landfall in Gibraltar mid May, sail or motor with all haste to the Greek Islands and spend June there. Then I'd like to sail up the Dalmation Coast to Venice during the month of July. I'd skip most of the East side of Italy in order to spend August on the West side. Then September along the French Riviera and October to the Balariac's and Spains Med coast. November head to the Canaries and back to the Carib.

What do you think? Too far? Wrong direction?

[James S]

The guys that brought my boat from the Pacific NW to Lebanon (going east) said the nicest place was southern Turkey.

[Yiorgos]

Hi from Greece,

Ionion and Aegean are full of islands of different architecture and interest. Concerning the very low cost of mooring (null cost in most of the places) I think you should spend more time there. June is a very nice season for Ionion but have in mind that most of the time in June is humid (for Greek standards).

Yiorgos

[Palarran]

Yiorgos, Thanks for the reply. I spent a week on Naxos 25 years ago and kind of never got over it. I'm trying to figure out how fast I can move from one place to another in order to slow down upon arrival. It appears that the islands in the Ionion's are more forested compared to the Cyclades. Any further into the Aegean and I won't get out for a year

[Yiorgos]

Hi again,

I'll give you somehints incase of a bad weather. In Ionion, Kastos and Kalamos except of Lefkasof course, tiny islands that givea good shelter even outside of their port. In Aegean, a small group of islands in SE of Naxos (esp. Shinousa) give a perfect shelter from meltemi (= the strong N & NE classic summer wind in Greece) In Cyclades you have 7-8 beaufort and in Schinousa you don't even have enough wind to sail!! When you'llbe in Greece, ask meforanything you want (I'm skipper in sailingboats)

Yiorgos