We were supposed to be cruising Alaska now, but with the boat stuck in Costa Rica, we’ve been stuck on land in Seattle.
Therefore…
We decided to head to France for the month of August, just to hang out on the beach. I will be renting a small boat from time to time for local cruising. The Med is a spectacular place to cruise in some ways, and not so good in others. On the positive side, there are essentially no tides or currents. There are interesting islands, wonderful beaches, and clear warm water for swimming and diving. On the negative side, the winds can be ferocious (30-40 knots) and last for several days. Language is generally not a barrier, although it is sometimes an issue.
This will be our first trip where I shouldn’t have a problem renting a boat. Europe is extremely picky about whether or not you have a captain’s license. A few years back, when our first Nordhavn was based near Monaco, I tried to rent a little 20 foot boat for some local cruising, and couldn’t find anywhere that would rent to me (our big boat was under repair, and the heat was getting to us). No one would rent me anything. Since that time I’ve obtained a European captain’s license, and a USCG 100 ton masters license, so I’m assuming I’ll have no problem. I didn’t know it at the time, but I believe I could have rented a sail boat from Moorings, without a license. Even though I’m not a sailor, the rules for sailboats are much looser than for power boats, and I’ve been told that most of the people who rent never put the sails up anyhow.
In any event, I probably won’t post much over the next month or two. I will send out an email when I have good information about when our boat is coming back from Costa Rica. At this point, I’m frustrated with the whole situation, and want to just go to Europe for a month, and hope my boat is here when I get back.
On a different topic: Here’s a site I was reading through this morning:
http://www.safetyandsecuritynet.com/index.html
It’s a site that tracks pirate attacks in the Caribbean. Interesting reading.
-Ken W
Therefore…
We decided to head to France for the month of August, just to hang out on the beach. I will be renting a small boat from time to time for local cruising. The Med is a spectacular place to cruise in some ways, and not so good in others. On the positive side, there are essentially no tides or currents. There are interesting islands, wonderful beaches, and clear warm water for swimming and diving. On the negative side, the winds can be ferocious (30-40 knots) and last for several days. Language is generally not a barrier, although it is sometimes an issue.
This will be our first trip where I shouldn’t have a problem renting a boat. Europe is extremely picky about whether or not you have a captain’s license. A few years back, when our first Nordhavn was based near Monaco, I tried to rent a little 20 foot boat for some local cruising, and couldn’t find anywhere that would rent to me (our big boat was under repair, and the heat was getting to us). No one would rent me anything. Since that time I’ve obtained a European captain’s license, and a USCG 100 ton masters license, so I’m assuming I’ll have no problem. I didn’t know it at the time, but I believe I could have rented a sail boat from Moorings, without a license. Even though I’m not a sailor, the rules for sailboats are much looser than for power boats, and I’ve been told that most of the people who rent never put the sails up anyhow.
In any event, I probably won’t post much over the next month or two. I will send out an email when I have good information about when our boat is coming back from Costa Rica. At this point, I’m frustrated with the whole situation, and want to just go to Europe for a month, and hope my boat is here when I get back.
On a different topic: Here’s a site I was reading through this morning:
http://www.safetyandsecuritynet.com/index.html
It’s a site that tracks pirate attacks in the Caribbean. Interesting reading.
-Ken W