Traveling by boat is almost as old as human culture: in the “Franchthi” cave near Kilada on the Argolic Gulf, Peloponnese Stone tools found that are 20,000-30,000 years old and whose material comes from islands in the middle of the Aegean Sea. So you must have been brought to the Peloponnese by (sailing) boat.
General
Traveling in your own or chartered boat still rightly has a touch of freedom and adventure. Head for the most beautiful shores, stay as long as you want, then anchor and cast off and sail on to new destinations - yes, that is still possible today. But if it is not to end in the loss of a boat and even life or freedom, there are a few things that must be observed:
- Quality Seamanship(wp!) is the absolute basic requirement. The skills proven with a sailing license or even just a sports boat license is by far not sufficient. Beginners should only sail with "old hands" in order to gain experience on larger trips.
- Well-developed areas make the most sense for the first trips, as this is where the easiest and safest advice and help can be found from experienced fur seals.
- The worse an area is developed for sailing boats, the more difficult and expensive it is to get help and material, be it equipment or repairs. Logically, you have to keep the more ready yourself.
- The local fishermen can provide first-class help almost anytime and anywhere: they know best their sources of supply, “their” lake, the expected weather, currents and obstacles, even if these are not shown on any map.
- Before you touch a state border, you have to find out exactly which regulations apply.
- Proper check-in and check-out is the be-all and end-all when sailing in other countries. If that is not possible right away, a satisfactory solution can almost always be found with good will together with the border authorities.
- Liability insurance for boats is mandatory in the EU. A personal liability insurance that includes boat trips is sufficient.
- Repair material is not always / not everywhere in the desired way. However, some manufacturers sell the same material with different certifications for construction and boats - in any case, it is worth asking on site. An email to the sales representative for the respective country is often enough, and the product name and dealer ID are usually sent immediately.
- District guides help with the planning SkipperGuide. Working with the sextant requires a lot of practice and a cast cutlery is not always accurate enough, a GPS provides the position quickly, safely and accurately, but can fail due to a lack of power. Nautical charts are indispensable, but extremely expensive for longer coastal trips. A set of GPS maps as well. OpenSeaMap - the free nautical map is still being developed, but is already very advanced in European sea areas. There are plenty of chart plotters. A laptop with a navigation program usually offers a larger picture and a free choice of software. OpenCPN is an open source navigation program, download from the OpenSeaMap site. When using a laptop or PC, a "GPS mouse" provides the location data.
- The weather is everything: we can't influence it, but it's up to us to set the right course and trim the sails properly.
There is weather in every harbor and in every marina. At least on sea coasts. You can never rely on that: barometer and thermometer observations are always more reliable. In the event of discrepancies, one judges always accepts the poor prognosis and is happy if it was wrong.
Here, too, the Internet does an excellent job. At sea, if you don't already have a radio on board, a receiver for marine radio is recommended.
- At least one emergency ration and water should be carried with you on short coastal trips: sudden adverse winds and currents that are not recorded or that you have overlooked can extend the trip unexpectedly.
- There are tides on most stretches of the sea - and mostly they don't seem to affect us: whether I have 500 m of water under my keel or 500.3 m - that doesn't matter. And yet they are the be-all and end-all when it comes to landing, choosing a port of destination, looking for a place to stay. Even those who are used to entrusting their boat to the technology for half or full nights on the high seas as a single-handed sailor will prefer to call at a safe harbor near the coast. If he still gets there. Because many approaches can only be reached from a certain water level upwards, they are often above Tartennull. And what use is the most beautiful deep water pool when the high water gate is closed and your own boat dries up in front of it or did not even get there because the tidal current was too strong to be encountered.
Twice a day the ebb tides large areas of the coast to dry out, twice a day they are washed over by the tide again. That can be a few centimeters or ten meters, around which the water level fluctuates. And that could be a few miles that are dry. It is therefore always advisable to heed some points or clarify them in advance:
- When and how high is the tide?
- When and how can the port / marina be reached?
- When and how strong is the current in which direction? So how do I have to change my compass course?
- Do I get into a deep water pool? If not, do I have “mud flats” with me to let my boat dry out? And what swell can I expect?
Area particularities
Special features of the area can only be outlined in general here, everything else can be found in the respective regional or local articles for the sake of a better overview.
Rhine-Main-MDK-Danube
A pure inland waterway and the Connection between the North Sea and the Black Sea. That means freight and passenger traffic across the board. Caution is advised especially against the extremely ruthless captains of the river cruisers. In the lower Danube area - behind the Carpathian breakthrough - there was talk of many dead children who perished in the waves near the bank. (See also here, approx. center of page) (private page about Danube travel experiences).
Commercial shipping has the right of way! And the ships are easily loaded with containers 10 m high on the Rhine and coupled to tow trains over 300 m long on the Danube.
The continental watershed lies between the North Sea and the Black Sea and has to be crossed on the MDK. The locks are fed up! Exercise can be found when driving up the Main as well as on the Danube. The Rhine is - after any access or equalization locks in the Netherlands, depending on the access route - lock-free and highly bridged until after Mannheim, the Main has low bridges, many locks for water level regulation and electricity generation and hardly any current. In the MDK it goes through many locks up to the watershed and down to Altmühlhöhe. The Danube has a few locks between the Altmühl estuary and Gabčíkovo (Czech Republic) and only then the last two as a double lock at the Iron Gate.
There are marinas on the Rhine near every notable port and in between at every opportunity, some free for boaters, some at "normal" prices and with a wide variety of facilities. There are also enough to be found on the Main, but in the MDK they are already 'sparsely sown' and on the Danube they are a matter of luck. Lying on quay walls in a stream, river or canal is not only restless, but also absolutely requires good protection against the impact of waves. But a set of canisters is absolutely necessary for refueling: petrol stations are rare, the expensive material usually has to be dragged from the nearest street petrol station. But sailing is only rarely possible, namely in backwaters: commercial shipping has absolute priority! However, that does not mean that - as long as the mast is still standing - the jib on a roller cannot support or even replace the engine when the wind is favorable, but idling is the minimum requirement in order to be able to evade in good time. Anyone who drives without the engine running is liable to prosecution, but anyone who can only get to the next safe quay or anchorage under sail without obstructing traffic in the event of an engine failure is a good sailor.
Further information can be found in the individual route articles.
Black Sea
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in the Black Sea 40 nm ahead Constanța there are oil rigs that are not shown on every map and that can easily lead to the wrong coastline in the island-free waters.
Where there are no marinas, you can find shelter in fishing harbors. Of Varna or Burgas from the Bosporus is a popular sea route and easy to tackle in 48 hours. But be careful: the route is heavily used by freighters and the roadstead is in front of the Bosphorus Istanbul.
Bosphorus
Very nice current of 3 kn to 8 kn from the Black Sea into the Marmara Sea and further into the Aegean Sea.
Entry is free of charge, but Turkey - like so many other countries - has to pay dearly to navigate its precious waters. The permit is valid for one year. (As of 2008) However, no check-in is necessary only to cross the Bosphorus (including the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelles) without going ashore.
Caution: an average of 137 freighters pass this waterway every day, 15 of them oil tankers!
No berths without check-in - and that is only possible in the first marina from Istanbul to starboard in the Sea of Marmara. It is by far the most expensive and the formalities are unnecessarily delayed. (As of 2007) With a prior check-in, however, it is possible to lie in one of the fishing harbors outside the metropolis well and safely from harassment and to leave the boat for day trips to Istanbul.
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Sea of Marmara and Dardanelles
Gelibolu on the border between the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelles is said to have a fishing port or even a marina. The driveway is right in front of the ferry terminal. It is by no means extinguished, at least hardly to be found at night.
Aegean
Beware of that Meltemi: it brings an average of 4–5 Bft., but can also blow for days with eight or more winds. Due to increasing climate change, it is increasingly unpredictable and now blows well into winter.
Night drives without a lookout (i.e. only with wind or autopilot) are life-threatening: if there is no collision with others, there is guaranteed to be a rock in the direction of travel, if you factor in the drift. To do this, you can often navigate by sight during the day. However, caution is advised: there are often rocks that are only a hand's breadth to two meters below the water level. Without any denial.
Atlantic
The Atlantic is a tidal body of water. Its water level fluctuates. Many ports, especially older ones, can only be reached at high tide. Some have deep docks with high water gates, they are only open for a few hours at high tide, some lie a few miles of shallow water in front of them that can only be crossed at high tide - and often only in narrow fairways. Navigation can become an art.
Another peculiarity of the tides is the tidal current: if the water level changes by a few centimeters far out on the high seas, hardly anyone will notice. If, however, large areas on the coast are flooded or dry out, if the water level rises and falls there twice a day by several meters, if in places huge masses of water shoot through relatively small openings, then this often results in huge currents, which sometimes also develop quite a bit further out, which make the boat drift imperceptibly but strongly. You have set out a clean course to the north, you have your compass in view, you have already taken into account the declination, wind drift and current drift caused by coastal currents - and yet you drive almost to the northwest! Because huge masses of water in the east, only just out of sight, cause an equally strong tidal current, far stronger than it should actually be at the boat location with a steady ebb flow. If you know that, you will adapt, change your course accordingly and arrive safely at your destination. If you ignore the tides, you will at best have real problems and arrive hungry and thirsty somewhere else, very late.
