August 2017

Enjoyed the dramatic sights offered by circling Isla Dragonera before dropping the hook in what passes for the island’s only anchorage at Cala Llado. A quick jump in the water with a mask revealed a less than ideal anchorage and all who use it should BE AWARE:

Holding is very sketchy. The bottom offers tiny patches of grass amongst a cavernous collection of large and jagged rock. Our anchor bit simply because it snagged a crack along the top of a rock, lucky us. However, an anchor could easily land in any one of the abundant crevasses and become seriously fouled, or it could fail to grab anything. We watched a neighbouring boat attempt to anchor several times before ultimately moving on.

There is a massive ridge-like rock amongst the surrounding 5-meter depths than raises much closer to the surface, to within about 2 meters (approximately N 39* 35.18’ by E 2* 19.68’). This rock was noted during my snorkelling explorations, however, it appeared far-enough away to not warrant concern. Then, of course at O’dark thirty, a 180-degree wind-shift (seemingly not uncommon in these locales) swung our boat directly over said rock, and thunderous smashing sounds and vibrations had all hands on deck to remedy the situation.

Anchor retrieval saw a small glitch but luckily the anchor did come up without too much fuss, perhaps the swing in direction actually helped dislodge us from our little “crack” holding. At any rate, my imagination was certainly capable of imagining a much worse outcome, and it served as a good reminder to always anchor with a 360* view in mind.
We got underway and decided to cross the channel (less than a mile) in hopes of snagging a vacant mooring ball from the nearby Sant Elm field, we’ll sort the rest out in the morning.

All went according to plan, and we were sleeping soundly until woken by the second round of smashing/crunching noises. “You gotta be kiddin’ me!” is all I could think as I hastily wrestled on a pair of shorts before gaining the deck. A large (18-meter or so) motor yacht still tied to its mooring ball was somehow tangled with us.

Wha? A younger crew member of the said yacht was doing his best to fend off the embattled bows. We joined the fight. We soon realized that their mooring had failed and they awoke as surprised as us. The skipper got his engines running, the crewman cast off his mooring lines, and we both parted ways relatively unscathed, thankfully. After the mess, I watched their yellow mooring ball bob itself out to sea.

That was the first (and last) time we ever used one of the CBBA mooring balls. I am not writing this post as a targeted criticism against CBBA, nor am I opposed to fixed-moorings. Accidents do happen and even well-made parts do fail. Sooner or later, the sea claims all. That said, we should all be aware that such failures do occur, even in popular, protected, and well-funded first-world cursing grounds.

Because we tied-up in the middle of the night and had not paid for the mooring, we were told by a staff member the following morning that we had little room for recourse. Considering that we received only scratches, the other boat was already gone, and that our itinerary was very tight we choose not to pursue the issue any further. All in all, it was quite a night, but thankfully—for me at least—all’s well that ends well.

I should note that we observed a number of boats using the anchorage at Isla Dragonera seemingly without trouble or hassle. I can only offer an account of my observations and experiences, of course, every crew must decide for themselves.

If you are new to the Med, as I am, I do recommend diving your anchor (especially if staying overnight) as the holding conditions seem quite differentiated and erratic.

Wintering in Spain at Sotogrande

WE are leaving out boat out of the water at this marina the cost seems reasonable for a 13M sailboat at 4200 EU. The boat yard appears organized and there are lots of staff and security people around

The above report is VERY astonishing!
Spain, having been hit by the crises quite hard (unemployment rate shooting to an average of 50%!) is in desperate need of funds – and they go and look for income wherever they can.

Very recently a yacht (“Air”) has been seized by the authorities in Palma de Mallorca for an outrageous claim for “back taxes” because it had advertised on its website to be available “for charter in the Western Med”!
Mind you: They have not advertised to be available for charter in Spain and they have not been caught actually doing an illegal charter in Spain – just the mentioning on their website was enough for the authorities to seize the vessel!
The owner – a billionaire – has received very little sympathy from the public when he was billed € 20 Million(!) for the authorities to again release the yacht! While I have to admit that I can also keep my sympathies at check for people in that income range, I still feel that the concept behind this system to compensate for a significant drop in income from the yachting industry should be taken as a major alert to all of us!

Also very important to keep in mind is, that Spain may be a “member of the European Community” – but only on the paper. Sad truth is, that there is a lot of corruption and at least “massive bending of the law” going on – and foreigners can’t expect to see much help from their own governments because by them Spain is considered a “law-abiding member of the EC”.

See for your info the story of an attempt to make a salvage case out of a simple emergency reported on our blog at http://786global.com/?p=147 (in German and English) as well as an at least as outragous story that is still happening to us which you can read up at:
http://786sail.com/786global/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMAGINE_en.pdf (in English) or at:
http://786sail.com/786global/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMAGINE_de.pdf (in German)

As far as importing your boat to Europe I would most seriously dispute Spain to be the “by far best place” to go about this.

If you are coming from outside the Med, I would strongly recommend going about this in Portugal (where most people speak English on top of it!).
I personally know the first-hand story of a large 38m Schooner that had been imported to the EC in Lissbaon with the Authorities happily accepting the value stated by the owner as a basis to compute the taxes. (Which, in that case, were ridiculously low!)

Another good option I have heard a lot about is Croatia. But also Greece seems to be a place where one can strike a fairly good deal with just a tiny little bit of negotiation.

On the other hand, does Spain, France and most of all Italy have the reputation of being “hard-headed” and especially if you run into an official having a bad hair day can quickly get out of hand.

Just my 2 Cents…..