mct

[mct]

Hi, another newbie, catamran sailor, med in summer, caribbean in winter, just came by to see what's going on and see if could conjure up some crew for transat to europe in May. I am easily recognisable as the guy *without* a silver-grey beard...

[markpj23]

Welcome aboard! You'll find this the best place for answers to all of your questions! Tell us more about yourself / your boat in your profile....

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, mct.

Doings a transat, beardless? You are an adventurer!

Good luck in finding suitable crew.

[James S]

Welcome to the forum.
So you have no beard or you have one but its not silver-grey.

[Garold]

Originally Posted by mct

Hi, another newbie, catamran sailor, med in summer, caribbean in winter, just came by to see what's going on and see if could conjure up some crew for transat to europe in May. I am easily recognisable as the guy *without* a silver-grey beard...

Any chance you could give a few more details on how you organise your year between Med and Carib. When do you make the trip? Route? destinations? Crusing grounds when in wither location?

Cheers

Garold

[mct]

ok, more info

I sold up 2006, bought the catamaran 2007 and chased the sunshine ever since. The general route is Novembr or Decmber go south and west from Canaries to carib, and around may go North and East to Azores, then through Gib for cheap refuel if you haggle, and into the med. Big port like Alicante is handy to drop crew and doesn't cost stupid money like Ibiza.

In the caribbean, the french islands are nice, Grenada and grenadines too, grenada as far south as I go, St Martin as far north and a good provisioning place to step off. In the med, Ibiza has nice anchorages and St trop is a favourite with wife who also does transats but always faster and in seat 5A, or 5B. I don't go further west to Italy etc since I don't enjoy being robbed and there's not enough time even if I did - i gotta move on to Canaries late August.

Eastbound. So far i have always managed to cut the corner and not go to Bermuda - the extra stop risks losing crew who will generally get kicked about the first few days north from st martin in NE swell. Horta seems a must-go for transateers and our boat name Mojomo is already plastered around. I am tcmvideo1 on youtube, and a video there shows last year slideshow/pix.

Westbound i have twice previously done ARCless from Lanzarote and met lots of people who said ooh no, don't go with the ARC, and i asked so have you gone with the ARC? and they'd usually say er no. So this year i went with the ARC from Las Palmas. It's a bit noddified, far too competetive (or maybe that's me...) and quite a few dull and/or very apprehensive types. But there is also lot of good fun people as well, nice social stuff, and so I have lots of ready made friends crusing about. I take down the ARC flag pronto, though in case some boring types rush over. But even if there was no social scene at all, being with the ARC means you can get into and stay in Las Palmas marina which is nice and buzzy, excellent island, good tech services, all serious boaty types, and it has dead cheap marina fees- almost so cheap as to make it repay the ARC fee against other marinas, and anchoring out is a bit of a boat-clonking mess, it seems.

[boatman61]

Hi and welcome.... if you want crew there's loads listed in the 'Crews" section.. think I saw someone looking for a ride to Europe....
"Keep on Truckin Dude".... its a Grand Life..
Phil

[Garold]

Thanks for the reply mct. Real food for thought.

It looks like you get the best out of both seasons. Do you find the Med or Carib costs more on average per week? I get the impression that cruisers use marinas more often in the Med than the Carib and so the costs may be less on average in the Carib.

And security in the Carib if anchoring out? I have read a lot of stuff about petty theft and some more serious onboard assaults. Is it over hyped or is there a significant, maybe experience-sapping risk now in the Carib?

Cheers

Garold

[mct]

Costs per week, hm, i am on a fairly wild budget i suppose and not really counting costs. Swmbo jets in from anywhere and everywhere visiting kids etc and i think she sneakily goes business class and doesn't tell me, harumph.

This whole subject of how much things cost "per week" is of course driven by how much of a pile one needs to cruise and not be earning, but it can lead to a quite miserable time, and is often deceptive anyway. Not ever going to bar means less social contact. And the weekly budget is heftily kicked around by "out of the blue" boat costs - i fried a starter motor the other week and pertwang! that's 480 euros.

Not using the boat much would reduce costs - you'd get good at finding the cheap places to shop, and wear out the boat less. You would also probably fry starter motors less rarely. Reduced diesel costs and on and on, altho you might go a bit bonkers

With a catamaran, yes, i think i can stay out of marinas most of the time. There are mooring buoys here and there in the caribbean, some nicely looked after and 15$ a night not 50+ like in a marina. Las Palmas is something like 25euros a night, and i supose that's the only marina where i spend any time, really. Gibraltar around 33 a night.

Best thing for flexible anchoring anywhere - besides a biggish catamaran with 80m of chain + 100m of line and 25kilo anchor- is the big 12ft AB dinghy - it means we don't get soaked and can bash along even in a few feet of chop. 15hp zips along but desn't gobble gasoline too much- it's not just the cost but the frequency of fuel stops that becomes inconvenient with bigger motor.

I'd probably agree that carib is gonna be cheaper than med - partly cos the anchorages more plentiful but also you can plan any trip *knowing* the wind wil be 15-25 knots from NE to SE and hence use very little diesel. Whereas in the med you can be motoring a lot if you are on a schedule which I am (a bit).

Again, the catamaran can stay out in reasonable comfort in (say) bay of st tropez whereas the monos just get kicked around too much and even in calm weather they spin overnight often several times waking occupants as onshore breeze afternoon changes to offshore katabatic as the land cools down.

Heat a big consideration for longterm comfy time on board - we have big solid (white) hardtop to hide under and bit of teak in the cockpit but white hull and white decks. The "fake" teaks eg tekdek are especially hot underfoot in caribbean, one boat i met almost unuseable - needs a bucket of water on hand to walk out of shaded cockpit area.

Security seems a bit over-hyped. However, I also think lots of people stay away from south american coast for exactly this reason and some stories not encouraging. In the windwards and leeward, i have't had a major problem. Also, LED lights let you illuminate the boat overnight and that's a big deterrent, i think. There are iffy spots - I had a 9.9 outboard nicked off the boat in st lucia vieux port 3 years ago but it wasn't locked so darnit, and generally everything is fine. I certainly don't think there's as much need for dinghy locking as there is - especially some right old heaps but still with giant chain and padlock.... But locking means it'll definitely be there of course and much better than (say) in central london where i locked a pushbike and thieves sliced the security wire rope snick and bike gone in 5 minutes, a car door unlocked wll definitely be rifled and so on. Grenada to s martin is generally populated by nice cruiser types and nice locals, altho just like at a good school, there'll be the odd thief here and there. Yeah, i heard of an assault on board (grenada?)but isolated i think, very very rare and just unfortunate to be there etc. Defnitley not enough to stop this sort of cruising, in my view.

All just imho though

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Garold

Thanks for the reply mct. Real food for thought.

It looks like you get the best out of both seasons. Do you find the Med or Carib costs more on average per week? I get the impression that cruisers use marinas more often in the Med than the Carib and so the costs may be less on average in the Carib.

And security in the Carib if anchoring out? I have read a lot of stuff about petty theft and some more serious onboard assaults. Is it over hyped or is there a significant, maybe experience-sapping risk now in the Carib?

Cheers

Garold

The North Carib is fine... Anchored in BVI's, Anguilla, St Martin, Antigua and never had any problems... except from idiots anchoring to close... amazing how many there are out there.
Never close/lock hatches when sleeping and take normal precautions when going ashore.... lock the dinghy to dock cleat to deter spur of the moment joy riders... lock boats hatches.
The 'Dangers' are overhyped and can lead to un-necessay paranoia.... its safer than walking through NY or London after midnight....lol.
The Med is more expensive due to the 'Discouragement' of anchoring to make sure the Marina's are filled... many I used in the 90's are now no anchoring zones.....

[mct]

yes all true

The "stolen dinghy" can often be just untied by too-casual other dinghy maybe charter not familiar with their line undoes a few too many lines.

Mainland Spain seems to run a regime whereby anchoring is seen as "sleeping rough" - marina officials sometimes come out and threaten to (try) and charge money so best move on. Guardia Civile sometimes turns up and sez you gotta move, and so you gotta move, mainly because they've got lots of guns.

Anchoring wise, best get the biggest boat you can - I can anchor lots further out than most and hence rarely anyone too close.

[Garold]

Mct and Boatman, thanks for the info.

I am just a leisure sailor (i.e. still working, sailing 25 weekends and 6 full weeks per year) but I have a desire in about 3 years time to maybe retire early and go cruising. So, cruising grounds info and budget info are both areas of consideration for me at the present time.

As for budget, it's hard to know what the average cruiser (Med &/or Carib with marina and anchoring mix) manages on during an average year (only running repairs rather than improvements to the kit list) on an average size cat (40 foot, less than 5 years old, owned from new). But I have to make an estimate at some point to work out if/when I can afford it.

As a ball park figure, if the boat is paid for and fully equipped, what's the general opinion of a £30,000 to £35,000 annual budget for me and my wife? Would I starve to death, or worse, have to go teetotal? Ignore any need for business class flights.

Or am I just confusing myself and everyone else by trying for too much detail too early?

The background info on the cruising grounds is also appreciated.

Cheers

Garold

[mct]

Woohoo, £30-35 k is lovely, you'll have a fine time and spare left over, or a severe drink problem.

Actually, you may have difficulty spending the whole 35k - not many have that sort of budget and will nurse a couple of beers in the cockpit all evening and invite you over the next evening - and that's still a fine fine time.

I can recommend St Barths to unload the spare ~10k inside a week.

[Garold]

Cheers, so that gives me a ballpark target. Yeah, I thought that if I can hit this figure or close to it, we should be able to live without too much bother.

It's funny talking budgets because, when one works out the cost of normal living close to London, whilst still working and paying for everything that 'normal life' seems to demand, the figures just get silly. £30k probably just gets us sorted on bills and food. It's £5k just for gas and electric each year!

And then, when we consider a change of lifestyle, we realise that we've been doing the same stuff for so long that we can't even remember living life without all those costs. Slave to the system? Definitely.

So, thanks for the positive messages. Guess it just confirms that my escape strategy is feesible.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Garold

Mct and Boatman, thanks for the info.

I am just a leisure sailor (i.e. still working, sailing 25 weekends and 6 full weeks per year) but I have a desire in about 3 years time to maybe retire early and go cruising. So, cruising grounds info and budget info are both areas of consideration for me at the present time.

As for budget, it's hard to know what the average cruiser (Med &/or Carib with marina and anchoring mix) manages on during an average year (only running repairs rather than improvements to the kit list) on an average size cat (40 foot, less than 5 years old, owned from new). But I have to make an estimate at some point to work out if/when I can afford it.

As a ball park figure, if the boat is paid for and fully equipped, what's the general opinion of a £30,000 to £35,000 annual budget for me and my wife? Would I starve to death, or worse, have to go teetotal? Ignore any need for business class flights.

Or am I just confusing myself and everyone else by trying for too much detail too early?

The background info on the cruising grounds is also appreciated.

Cheers

Garold

Garold..... WOW can I come sail with you... I averaged 4,000 euro's/yr in 08/09.... including eating out, drinking, smoking n havin a good ole time....
But then I have a different approach... I get to know the locals as fast as possible and find where they hang out...
In Europe we have 1st, 2nd and 3rd line .... 1st line restaurants are for the poseurs and tourists, 2nd line for the tourists who like to think they're going native.... 3rd line is where your probably the only 'stranger' in the place... great food at a fraction and usually great people who'll take you to places you'd never otherwise see.
Example... On the Algarve I was anchored at Portimao... average main course for one was from 7.50e to 25e depending on how basic you wanted
to be... wine etc extra...
I was dining out in a nice bar on huge Piri Piri grilled chop, fries and salad, 1 beer, brandy and espresso coffee for 4.75euro..... 1/2 chicken the same
Marigot, St Martin,FWI... Most head for the Tourist Trap Eateries around the Marina and front.... I head in for the Rib Shacks....
Horses for courses mate.... depends on why your out there...
A NEW LIFE..or a variation of the old one....
But whichever... enjoy