Cruising Plan Reconsidered

Last week, I received a call from Terry Owens. Terry is a friend of my father-in-law, Jack Martinez. Knowing that Terry is a cruiser, Jack had shared with Terry our plans to cruise Scandinavia in our new Hallberg-Rassy 40. Terry was so excited he had to call us to find out what we were up to.

Terry and his wife own two boats. One is in the San Francisco Bay Area. The other is kept in St. Tropez, France. Terry told me all about his nine years cruising seasonally in the Mediterranean. He raved about how great it is over there and, when he heard we were planning to spend just two seasons in Europe before bringing the boat across the Atlantic, he said, "Don't do that. You'll never go back to Europe, so spend at least a few more seasons there."

He told of his travels to Majorca and Mallorca, islands off southern Spain, and trips to the Adriatic where island hopping off Croatia is sheer bliss. He mentioned several places to visit. He described a cool route to the Med through French canals rather than around Iberia. (Unfortunately, the canals require taking down the mast, plus draft must be less than six feet. Ours is 6' 7".) He said there were no paperwork hassles going in and out of the various countries, even African countries. He says he goes over to Tunisia every 18 months to avoid paying the European Value Added Tax.

It's not all perfect. He told of extremely expensive places to stay away from. He also says at least half his time is spent motoring because the winds in the Med are light and infrequent. But overall, he was very upbeat on taking the boat into the Med and touring there for at least a season or two.

So we're now contemplating revisions to our 2010 cruising plan to check out the Med. None-the-less, the catchword for the cruising life is Serendipity. But who knows how far we'll get in any given day or season? For now, we're focused on getting started. Once we have a few miles under our belt, we can see which way the wind blows for the next few, and the next few....