Sailing the med.

[TJW]

Hey, Me and a mate have just got a 24ft Falmouth Gypsy,

Next march we're looking of sailing down to La Rochelle then down the 'Canal du midi' into the Mediterranean .

Does anyone have any experience of any useful guides to it being a successful trip! We have no timescale, its not an issue.

[Bat21]

Hi when you say La Rochelle and the Canal du Midi, do you mean:

Royan, the Girron, Canal Central, Lateral and canal du midi ending in the med at Sette?

The issues will be:

Crossing Biscay,get the timing right, pushing against the current in the Girron up to Casttettes, (the tide is no help). Stowing your mast, drop it at Pouliack and most of all, the depth in the Midi. Then, you will enter the Gulf of Leyon which, is not for the feint hearted.

Been there done it and have the T shirt, do not try doing the entire trip from Chichester in 18 days.

[TJW]

Hi, Thanks for that, What makes the Gulf of Lyon daunting? Also, our draft is only about 3ft6".. Going to purchase rick steins DVD tonight, the French odyssey I believe. The mast will come down no probs. Also, we're planning of doing it over 5/6months. hopefully down the Italy maybe Greece.

[tank slapper]

Try a shorter trip first, to see if you can cope with being in close proximity to each other. 6 months is a hell of a long time to spend on a 24ft boat. Getting on well on land is different, so unless you have done it before you won't know.

[TimmyArt]

always wanted to do this - I'll be following progress closely!

[Fittster]

How much sailing experience do you currently have?

[TJW]

My Friend has years of sailing experience with his Dad, I have been sailing on a 68ft clipper and have a bit of experience, we're bothing doing our Yachtmaster's in the new year hopefully.

[schmalex]

There was a good story a few years ago about a couple of young French lads who bought a similar boat & decided to sail it from Cherbourg to the Med. Nothing wrong with that at all. However, instead of buying / renting a liferaft, they bought a kids beach dinghy (complete with plastic oars) and rather than go to the expense of a GPS & some charts, they acquired an old Michelin road atlas, figuring that as long as they kept the land on their left, th-ey would figure out their position from the street lights at night.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before they had to get rescued by the French lifeboat service.

Go for it. There is nothing better than making an unfeasably long passage in a yacht, out of sight of land & all under your own steam

ETA. I shouldn't worry too much about getting your Yachtmaster. The most important thing is lots of practical experience & making sure you can navigate & know what to do when it gets a little bouncy & things start looking as if they are going to break / sink / fall down.

Edited by schmalex on Wednesday 19th November 14:57

[HarryW]

first I've heard of this, wait to your mother finds out

[XJSJohn]

Bat21 said:

Been there done it and have the T shirt, do not try doing the entire trip from Chichester in 18 days.

Used to do deliveries and yea 18 days was hammer down!!

[phumy]

schmalex said:

The most important thing is lots of practical experience & making sure you can navigate & know what to do when it gets a little bouncy & things start looking as if they are going to break / sink / fall down.

Edited by schmalex on Wednesday 19th November 14:57

And that is exactly what you will learn when you do your yachtmasters ticket.

The sea is an unforgiving place and takes no prisoners. It deserves all the respect you can give it, dont go into this with rose-tinted glasses.

Edited by phumy on Thursday 20th November 03:01

[XJSJohn]

phumy said:

schmalex said:

The most important thing is lots of practical experience & making sure you can navigate & know what to do when it gets a little bouncy & things start looking as if they are going to break / sink / fall down.

Edited by schmalex on Wednesday 19th November 14:57

And that is exactly what you will learn when you do your yachtmasters ticket.

The sea is an unforgiving place and takes no prisoners. It deserves all the respect you can give it, dont go into this with rose-tinted glasses.

Edited by phumy on Thursday 20th November 03:01

TBH you are both right, but it takes time to build to a yachtsmaster...

Dayskipper practical and nightschool theory will teach a knoweldge of navigation and tides etc.

I don't imagine that they are going to push out on a 2 day offshore passage in that boat straight off the blocks anyway, lots of fantastic places to visit on North Biscay if you coast hop ... could get lost for a year enjoying Morbian etc etc.

Most important thing i would say (aside from making sure that you yourselves are up to the job) is if this boat is just bought, do some safe, local sea trials in her ... confirm what needs replacing / modifying and find out what will break before you set off on your adventure.

Just go into the venture eyes open and aware and you will have fun!

[schmalex]

phumy said:

schmalex said:

The most important thing is lots of practical experience & making sure you can navigate & know what to do when it gets a little bouncy & things start looking as if they are going to break / sink / fall down.

Edited by schmalex on Wednesday 19th November 14:57

And that is exactly what you will learn when you do your yachtmasters ticket.

Well, yes & no. There are two elements to Yachmaster - practical & theory. You can sit behind a desk working theoretical scenario's until you are blue in the face, but it is very different when it is 3.00am, raining, blowing 35kts plus & the st is hitting the fan in a big way. It takes a long time to build up the miles & night hours required for the practical bit of yachtmaster.

phumy said:

The sea is an unforgiving place and takes no prisoners. It deserves all the respect you can give it, dont go into this with rose-tinted glasses.

Totally, 100% agree. Many times, I have seen people step onto offshore race boats full of bravado, but end up browning themselves when things get a little interesting

[blueyes]

Bat21 said:

Hi when you say La Rochelle and the Canal du Midi, do you mean:

Royan, the Girron, Canal Central, Lateral and canal du midi ending in the med at Sette?

The issues will be:

Crossing Biscay,get the timing right, pushing against the current in the Girron up to Casttettes, (the tide is no help). Stowing your mast, drop it at Pouliack and most of all, the depth in the Midi. Then, you will enter the Gulf of Leyon which, is not for the feint hearted.

Still... it's better than flying Ryanair.

[BoRED S2upid]

You've just bought a Gypsy. Your both going to be spending 6 months on a gypsy.... Snigger.

[Snoggledog]

XJSJohn said:

... confirm what needs replacing / modifying and find out what will break before you set off on your adventure.

Just go into the venture eyes open and aware and you will have fun!

Ahem

Remember those shroud plate bolts that mysteriously went missing one night. Just as well you had some spare computer bits handy that fitted.

[Brown and Boris]

Sell and buy in the Med?

Not sure canal crusing is sailing as such (its like caravanning compared to driving IMHO) so why not cut to the chase and fill your sails with warm med air from day one and spent 6 months in the warm and at sea?

[BigLepton]

TJW said:

Also, our draft is only about 3ft6"..

In that case make sure you only take your toothbrush with you as although the canal authorities claim the minimum guaranteed depth to be 1.6m the locals will tell you that there is plenty of it below 1.2-1.3m these days.

[TJW]

Brown and Boris said:

Sell and buy in the Med?

Not sure canal crusing is sailing as such (its like caravanning compared to driving IMHO) so why not cut to the chase and fill your sails with warm med air from day one and spent 6 months in the warm and at sea?

Because We'd rather sail there, drop the mast down the canal's and then hit the warm med air! Its more of an accomplishment.

[Bat21]

TJW said:

Brown and Boris said:

Sell and buy in the Med?

Not sure canal crusing is sailing as such (its like caravanning compared to driving IMHO) so why not cut to the chase and fill your sails with warm med air from day one and spent 6 months in the warm and at sea?

Because We'd rather sail there, drop the mast down the canal's and then hit the warm med air! Its more of an accomplishment.

There are only 270 Locks between Castettes and Sete! We avaraged 27 a day, if I were you, I would stop at 3 or 4 !