Smallish motor cruiser around Ionian Islands
Discussion
HI all , hope there is someone out there who may be able to help. Have been going to the Ionian islands for years now and truly adore it. Staying in a villa overlooking the sea, going down to the harbour, walking along the boats and that's where it got us thinking. Would love to try something different next year. Try our luck on a boat. Would not know how to set a sail or anything. So I thought about a small cruiser to see if we like it, then progress to getting proper training etc for a sailing yacht. Just for one week going around Kefalonia/Ithaca/Lefkas ??. Stopping off at a different port/inlet every day. Would like to know some costs, more so about the fuel costs. How do you work it out, MPG ? GPM ?. Do you know where I can hire a boat ? Any other costs involved like port fees etc. .............many thanks in advance.
I've not chartered one out there, one thing they may require is an International Certificate of Competence, certainly a good few countries ask to see one before they charter you a boat, the RYA say Greece is one of them.
To gain one you'll need to either pass a specific ICC test, or, more commonly, qualify through doing the Powerboat Level 2 course, a weekend learning the basics of small boat operation, leaving and coming alongside, mooring, planing, close quarters maneuvering, basic safety, man overboard recovery etc. It's a good starting point.
If you've not done much before I'd recommend doing some theory, you can do Dayskipper Theory over winter evenings in the classroom, basic navigation, tide calculations, collision regulations etc.
To gain one you'll need to either pass a specific ICC test, or, more commonly, qualify through doing the Powerboat Level 2 course, a weekend learning the basics of small boat operation, leaving and coming alongside, mooring, planing, close quarters maneuvering, basic safety, man overboard recovery etc. It's a good starting point.
If you've not done much before I'd recommend doing some theory, you can do Dayskipper Theory over winter evenings in the classroom, basic navigation, tide calculations, collision regulations etc.
If you have had any type of boating experience why not look at sailing holidays.com, they do not require any formal qualification. They sail around lefkas, ithaca, kefalonia etc and as it,s a flottila of around 10 boats, you have the help etc of routeplanning, mooring up etc, i have sailed and skippered 4 times with them, my only previous experience was windsurfing, fantastic holidays and mooring somewhere new every evening ie nidri, meganisi, kalamos, vathi on ithaca etc, lead crews were always really good and ready to help, sail as little or as much as you wish, with light winds you end up using the engine quite a lot anyway.
I agree with Mickey Metro. We went to Kefalonia with sailingholidays.com this year and sailed a 32ft on our own. neither had any experience of boating prior to this year. Our inspiration was watching the boats come into St Stephano each evening from our villa, and thinking was a calm holiday it seemed.
On our first day they took out out into the bay for a couple of hours tuition, (which was free!) and we learned the ropes very easily.
Boats are smaller than they appear. We took a 323 as it had a reasonable size rear bedroom. By reasonable i mean very small and any smaller would be claustrophobic. The toilets on board are also small but this had a much bigger than normal, the boat suited two of us. A third would be difficult and the concept of 4 to 6 on there abhorant!
i would also advocate the concept of a sail boat over a motor cruiser of the same length. The Ionian can be quite choppy which isnt as much fun in a powerboat.
We will do the holiday again, probably when i have a licence allowing us to take a 40ft plus boat. if a group of you are going certainly worth looking at the bigger boats, they are much more comfortable.
On our first day they took out out into the bay for a couple of hours tuition, (which was free!) and we learned the ropes very easily.
Boats are smaller than they appear. We took a 323 as it had a reasonable size rear bedroom. By reasonable i mean very small and any smaller would be claustrophobic. The toilets on board are also small but this had a much bigger than normal, the boat suited two of us. A third would be difficult and the concept of 4 to 6 on there abhorant!
i would also advocate the concept of a sail boat over a motor cruiser of the same length. The Ionian can be quite choppy which isnt as much fun in a powerboat.
We will do the holiday again, probably when i have a licence allowing us to take a 40ft plus boat. if a group of you are going certainly worth looking at the bigger boats, they are much more comfortable.
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