AstonTownsel906

The wind tends to blow along the Spanish coast, both east or west along the Costa del Sol, and then just when you think you'll get the wind on the column as you turn the corner, you get it on the nose again. Actually, that's n...

I doubt there is one, but when you're the kind of yachtie who likes to use his engine to get out of the marina, immediately established his sails, and only use the engine to get into a harbor, then you'll be disappointed. There's plenty of motoring in the Med.

The wind tends to strike along the Spanish coast, both east or west along the Costa del Sol, and then only when you feel you'll get the wind on the column as you turn the corner, you obtain it on the nose again. Actually, that's not exactly right, since for 10-20 miles north of the south-east corner, the wind continues to blow east-west. Even though the wind blows, it does not usually begin before 12 noon, and sometimes not till later.

And so the thing to do is run up across to the Balearics, because we discovered that the winds around the islands are good sailing winds. You often get good winds round Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, and there are lots of good anchorages and marinas to stay in. It's specially the north-east of Majorca, a great touring floor, and most of Menorca.

Many people think about the Med to be either calm, or with just a breeze, however it may blow as firmly down there as around Devon and Cornwall. The big difference is that the wind may come from nowhere and get up to a force 7-8 in two one hour. And neither the sky nor the measure provide you with much idea.

Caught Out in an inland sea

We've been rather lucky in this respect, but once we were caught out badly. We'd cunningly anchored off the less common side of an island in the inland sea of Manhattan project Manga. Then the wind was likely to turnaround and originate from the east, and all was well the first night, and the next day, I think it was, however, not before the next day. At about 8 pm the wind from the west dropped, and we expected nothing to happen the days in many cases are calm. Within half an hour, the wind had not just gone around to the north, but was coming at a force six pushing us onto the island!

We couldn't go around the other side because the water was not deep enough, so we had to go into the marina in the tube leading out of the inland sea. That might have been easy enough except that the lights marking the entrance to the channel weren't working, and by the full time we got there it absolutely was pitch dark.

That wasn't all; because of silting, they'd had to draw out a channel to the canal, and this was a dog-leg marked by rules joining several buoys red and white can you believe. Worse than that, there is only 1 white light, and several red ones at the beginning of the channel, because it were, to the tube. So obviously, until a stick was suddenly seen by me silhouetted in the air we could not see them and only had to inch our way toward the wall.

At that moment, we got so near to the string marking the channel that it caught round the skeg, but fortuitously slipped down quickly enough. Even when we experienced the marina we'd work mooring as the wind was blowing us so difficult off the jetty the man was not amused by the only space left being the fuelling jetty, which responsible for it when he arrived the following morning.

We have since learned that the Spaniards in particular are not proficient at placing and lighting buoys, and that they frequently do not bother to replace ones that are destroyed. Night sailing is best reserved for long articles in the open ocean.

So, like somewhere else, unexpected things can happen when you travel in the Med, but you visit some great places, meet some wonderful people, and can have some great sailing so long as you know where to go - that does not include the south Spanish mainland!

We have now spent six months traveling in the Med, slowly heading east from Estepona, and many people ask:

"Is the Mediterranean the ideal spot to sail?"

By John Hartley advertiser