Our course through the Mediterranean
Ok, we know that most of Turkey is actually on the Asian continent. But it is also on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts which is European, so we have included all of Turkey as though part of Europe. And that is where we spent 2011 and started 2012.
In 2012, we moved on to Greece. While in Greece, we decided that we had had enough of Mediterranean sailing, and we decided to sail west and leave the Med.
We find Mediterranean Europe fascinating – the cultures, histories, foods, etc. – but we do not like the sailing in the Med. The winds are not conducive to sailing, the seas are usually short and choppy, the anchorages are always overcrowded, and the marinas are always overpriced. Our dispositions and our boat are both better suited to ocean sailing, so we will move on.
Why do so many others like sailing in the Med? We believe that it is related to differences in boats and perspective.
Passage is quite different from most boats in the Med. We have compared her to the Euroboat here.
We have also compared ourselves to most of the sailors in the Med. We have realized that those we have met that enjoy the Med have not sailed the Pacific or Indian Oceans. We do not know one person who has sailed the Pacific and enjoys sailing the Med. We believe it is a matter of perspective, and we realize how fortunate we are to have been to the places we have been.
After making the decision to move on, we traveled through Albania, Italy, Malta, and Spain. We reviewed the numbers associated with crossing the Med, and we think they illustrate our frustration with sailing there.
In 2012 alone (not including 2011) – from Teos, Turkey to La Linea, Spain – we traveled 2,283 miles crossing the Med. We motored 388 hours. With an average motoring speed of 5.3 knots, we motored approximately 2,056 miles. We sailed only 227 miles – less than ten percent of our distance traveled.
We burned 374.32 gallons of diesel for which we paid $2,780.28 USD. This is an average cost of $7.43 per gallon. We spent many hours motoring in difficult conditions, and we burned an average of 0.8 gallons per hour. It cost us an average of $5.94 per hour to motor.
We think these numbers reflect both the frustration and expense of crossing the Med. We were glad to get back out in to the ocean and the trade winds.
Return to European destinations.