Hi Steen,

Thanks for your mail. You can be completely calm. Heron landed on a place on the mainland opposite Corfu. We have just landed at Aktio Marina.

It is difficult to guard against a burglary like the one we were exposed to and when it happens you should (rightly) be able to expect support from the company you have paid money to store your boat (even if they are not responsible for damage and theft to the boat).

I'm pretty sure Aktio Marina would have approached the matter differently if this was where the burglary had taken place.

Heron is also on lane 8

Thanks for the nice words.

Exciting that you are planning a trip. (You can enjoy yourself)

For us, port money has been a nice part of the cost of sailing in the Mediterranean.

MEN

when it is said (or rather written), it must be added that we as Danes also sail as Danes. That is, we go to port every night. Many others are at anchor. Some only to supply and bunker water and diesel and then spend the night at anchor. Others go to port maybe a couple of times a week and spend the rest of the week at anchor.

Prices vary from country to country, from port to port, but also within the year.

Of the three countries we visited, the most expensive was Italy. Greece the cheapest, while France was slightly cheaper than Italy.

A small impression of the price variation:

In Porto Rotondo in the Northeast Sardine, a port site for Heron costs € 218 per day in August (Yes you read right). € 142 in July, € 65 in June and September € 35 in May, € 18 in April and € 8 from October to March.

Typically, the price in Italy is around € 60 - 90 per day during peak season and slightly lower in France.

In Greece the price is € 20- 25 per day in the municipal ports and € 50- 60 per day in the private (here is also a great comfort).

We recommend downloading the app "NAVILY". Here you can enter data on your boat and get the port fees per day in most ports in France and Italy and a few in Greece. You can also (free) book a place, which may well be necessary in high season. The app also has an excellent overview of anchorages and user comments and weather forecasts (wind and waves) for each site.

The port fees in the canals are low. Typically € 8-12 per day. But you can also lie for free at a resting place, of which there are many in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France.

Hope this answers your question. Of course, feel free to ask for more.

Greeting

Carl & Pia

Hi Christian.

We came home last Thursday, Heron is on land in Plataria. It is located on the mainland well 20sm southeast of Corfu. We are already looking forward to next season (it is cold wet and foggy here in Denmark).

In 2020 we stay in Greece and sail slowly around the Peloponnese.

We don't yet know when to start, but shouldn't we be able to meet?

Does your AIS work?

We spent the winter in the new port of Menton in the winter of 2017/18, but did not live on the boat ourselves. 'Live-aboard community' was not large according to the port office about 50 people spread over an unknown number of boats. However, it did not appear that all 50 were there at once. There was not much life at the long concrete pier we lay by. It seemed as if there was a little more life on the boats at the drawbridges. Therefore, insist on getting a place there if you want to spend the winter in Menton.

The new harbor where we were located has nice facilities, but is troubled by southwesterly winds. We got a lump out of the hull as the city was hit by an 10 year storm from the southwest for the second year in a row. Watch our video [url Watch our video ....

We liked the city very much. Here is life all year round. Christmas was very atmospheric and not far to Nice, from where there are many and cheap departures to Copenhagen.

We were also very happy with Cannes (the old port) but here we were too late to apply for a winter location.

Loano in Italy could also be a possible wintering haven for you. The harbor is almost brand new, is much better protected than Menton and has some of the nicest toilet and bath facilities we've seen. (They were also fine in Menton now)

In Lavandou and Sanary-sur-Mer, the residents themselves complained that too much shut down in the winter. These are now otherwise nice towns.

You can also download the Navily app. You can reserve space and read reviews of most ports in the Mediterranean.

Heikel's pilot books and the French port pilots we also enjoyed

Hi Niels,

Thank you for your kind comments.

Greeting

Carl & Pia

Hello Camilla,

We obtained several offers for the transport of the mast from Travemünde to Port Napoleon in the Mediterranean. We decided to use the firm Fastmast (they were the cheapest or should we not say least expensive)

Fastmast has an excellent website - www.fastmast.com. The proprietor is Rainer Petras. He speaks good English. You can reach him on the phone 00 49 171 486 1820. It's a good idea to call him already. He is trying to collect the transports.

The mast was unstepped at Boeb's yard in Travemünde, packed together and lay there until Fastmast picked it up and drove it to Port Napoleon.

Very simple; but also a little nerve wrecking to leave the rig to a transport company without any documentation other than a few SMSs and phone calls. But Rainer is a good and honest man. So no problems. Mast and rig lay waiting for us in Port Napoleon. Nicely packed after the transport.

Boeb's yard is skilled (also to write pretty large bills for unstepping the mast). We have heard there should be a boat builder in Lübeck. It should be good and significantly cheaper. (Fastmast may also pick up the mast there).

Enjoy your journey. It's a great nice trip. (We were especially excited about the route from Namur in Belgium to the Mediterranean).

Greeting

Carl & Pia

Thank you for the nice words about our blog.

On our trip to the Mediterranean the "critical" stretch was from Givet at Meuse to Corre at the end of the Canal des Vosges.

The guaranteed water depth is here 180 cm. Same as guaranteed on most other channels in France.

When we went through May, the warranty was fine and we met a couple of the same depths as you.

Later in the season this year it counted less than normal. Therefore, there was a lack of water in the channels. I think the route closed a couple of weeks for that reason. But thinking it has not been a problem in the last few weeks.

Keep an eye out for the messages at www.vnf.fr and look forward to a great trip from Statte in Belgium to Port Saint Louis, in our opinion, was very nice.

// Carl & Pia

It's done. Thanks for the help