infos for sailors, charterers and motorboatdrivers


Any info´s for people, sailing in the Balearics, will be described here there are aswell some general infos to the Balearics, interesting landtourists, charterer, holidaysailors and cruisingsailors.


  • How to moore
  • To declare in and out
  • To stay over winter
  • Weather on the Balearics








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    How to moore


    As usual in the Med, you normally moor with bowanchor and sternrope in the harbours. Of course, the marinas have mooringchains, which you aswell fix at the bow.
    In the mostly sandy bays of the Balearics, you normally anchor free, without sternropes. Just in narrow corridors like for example Cala Pi, we recommend sternropes. If you have enough room, in some bays in Menorca, especially on the southcoast, it is aswell wise to keep the boat in the swell, using sternanchor or ropes.









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    To declare in and out


    To declare in and out is necessary for any non-european sailor. In that case, you go to the harbourmaster, who will help you and tell about the formalities. EU-citizens just have to have a correct passport.
    In any way, you need to have a correct boatdocument, to proofe, who is the owner and if VAT is paid correctly. The authorities always proofe that!












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    To stay over winter



    If you think about, to winter in the Balearics, it is necessary to know, if you want to live aboard or just park the boat until the next season.
    If you want to leave the boat alone, just ask in any marina, you like for a vacant berth in water or on the hard, just after your decision.
    The prices have exploded unbelievably in the last years. We can proofe this with the following example: for our catamaran, with the dates 11.30x4.95x0.85 m, we paid in Puerto de Alcudia for a yearly berth in water in 1994 and 1995 per year 7000 DM. When we asked for a berth in 1999, aswell in water and for one year, the harbourmaster offered the same berth to us for the wonderful price of just "only" 28.000 DM, four times the money from 4 years ago..... The winterprice for just 6 month was about 12.000 DM !!?? (for poundprices, you can approx divide through 3)
    To be honest, we must say, that we asked in spring for the next winter, which is not very clever... maybe you can get a better price, if you come just before winter, but with a cat, this means always the risk, that there will be no more room for you.

    Anyway, the prices are astronomic.

    A good alternative is Menorca, where prices are better in harbours like Mahon or Addaya.
    In Mahon, for that ask Ribera S.L.(Fax +34.971.354327), owner of the buoys, Isla Clementina and Isla Cristina and jetty in Cala Llonga. Also Pedro´s Boatshop has got some berths.

    To winter in Menorca aboard is good for eremits, the island is nearly dead in winter and to live on the boat is only possible, if you have got a heater (or maybe, for arcticfreaks....?)

    Best choice for warm temperatures and highlife is Palma. Do not expect to have temperatures like in springtime over the winter, but Palma even is more sheltered of the northerlies than for example Alcudia, we have measured sometimes a difference between the both ports of 8° C. (Winter 1998)
    Anyway: for the "classic" livaboard, we always would recommend mainland, especially Costa de la Luz. If you come from Turkey for example, you only will find your used social life in marinas like Aquadulce for example, not on the Balearics. They develop more and more to resorts for rich owners, using their boats just a few days per year....., in winter, the harbours are not more than parkinglots for boats.

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    Weather on the Balearics



    I think, you agree, that a good sailor daily hears,and in times of internet, reads weather. This is absolutely necessary in that area. You may choose between the good old radio, listening to Deutsche Welle or Radio Marseille, Infos in the marinas at the blackboard, local TV, hamradio (Offenbach) up to the big variousity on Internet.
    With the internetservices, we have made brillant experiences in the last years and as a customer of compuserve with stations in every country, it is aswell not too expensive. So, we got every day, 4-6 weatherstations and -charts and aswell forecasts to build up a very good picture of the actual situation.

    The adresses in Internet change very often, but as you know, we run a big sailingmagazine on internet, www.sailorsworld.com, where you always will get the latest links to several forecasts, if you just click weather.

    For people, not familiar with the net, here some other frequencies:
    Deutsche Welle, 6.075, 9.545 kHz, 1655 UTC (summertime 1h earlier)
    Radio Österreich, 6.155, 13.730, 15.410 and 17.870 kHz, 1545 UTC (30.3.-31.10.)
    Radio Nacional de Espana 585, 729, 738 and 855 kHz, 1000, 1300, 1700, 2100 local time, summertime 1h earlier
    France Inter 162 kHz
    Radio Marseille 1.242 kHz 1005 and 2005 local time


    Mallorca and Menorca normally offer a steady weather in summer, but after all, do not trust in it. There is always the danger of strong Mistrals and Tramontanas. And, in summer 2000, there were a lot of wind (too much) and clouds....also not usual for that area.
    As they are islands, every coastal area has got its own wind, capes increase the wind. So, for example, in Palma bay, you mainly have southwesterly winds in settled weather, no matter what the other areas may have... The wind awakes in the morning, blows over the day in various strength and normally dies at afternoon... in settled weather, do not calculate with tis!!

    The main wind is a N, Tramontana (called Mistral in Lyon, Maestral at Costa Brava), which blows dry and cold from the french coast, often stormy. If there is a bft. 8 or 9 in Lyon, still bft. 7 arrives mainly in Menorca. The more you head south, the less wind arrives from that direction, but always take care of this wind, it´s a beast!
    But, if you are in a sheltered bay, he sometimes helps to stand the heat, for he brings cool winds; skys are clear and blue, when he blows and sun shines.

    In contrast to Tramontana, the southwind, in his strongest form called Scirrocco, is a hot, dumpy wind, coming from the Sahara, blowing along the northcoast of Africa and turning to east towards the Med.
    He announces himself with a darkyellow stripe at the horizon and carries a lot of sand, you will not recognize your deck afterwards......It needs hours, to get this darkyellow dirt off!!
    The southwind normally starts dry in Africa, but on his way to the Balearics, he gets more and more humid, so if he blows, you feel like in a dumpy hairdresser´s salon.

    Grace Rasumus, the windgod, he is not blowing very often and long!
    Levante is called the eastwind, coming if there is a depression between the Balearics and Africa. He normally comes 8-10 times a year in storm strength.

    Normally, you should have moderate winds in that region, normally. In the last years, as anywhere else in the world, we have learned not to trust the rules, they have changed a lot, so aswell here in that area.
    So, take care of weatherreports and listen to CH16, where you will get gailwarnings, as usual. Navtex aswell sends gailwarnings, not always in right time....

    Also look at the clouds! A good sign for an immediately starting Tramontana/Mistral are cigarshaped clouds. If you see them, hurry up into the next harbour, this wind is able to produce short waves of 2-4m in a VERY short time!! back to the overview
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    Copyright (C) 2000 Friedrich & Karin Gerkhardt
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