If anyone should tell you that you can forget tides in the Mediterranean, smile sweetly and refer them to me.

Of course, in the 'up and down' sense that you need to watch your anchoring depths over a six hour period, you can forget it provided you aren't near the strait of Gibraltar. But for the average cruising seaman, tides aren't just about up and down. They're also about large bodies of water moving you from side to side in different directions, sometimes helping, sometimes hindering, sometimes just plain confusing.

Whilst technically probably more a 'current' than a 'tide', the effect is pretty much the same if you are trying to get from A to B in a small yacht in the Med, and its presence can take you by surprise.

Attempting to deliver a Sun Odyssey 42 DS from Biograd in Croatia to El Kantoui in Tunisia.  Tim Read, the owner (pictured left with Yachtmovers skipper and Sailers editor Richard Thomas), and his crew member, David (Butch) Steeves, wanted some 'own boat' tuition en route, so had hired Yachtmovers (www.yachtmovers.co.uk) to do the job.  We arrived on Saturday 18th, and found that the liferaft, which had been promised for delivery to the boat by 13th May by Seago, hadn't arrived.  We couldn't go without one, so a delay of several days ensued, with the promised liferaft stuck en route.  In the end, Tim made an executive decision to buy one locally, at much greater cost, and return the original to Seago.

Vieste
41 53.9N 16 19.0E

We hadn’t intended to be anywhere near Vieste,  but what a fantastic find!  This is a place to visit again. Having reported what we thought might be a minor engine problem, we were met by the Coastguard boat, who kindly guided us in and found us a berth. The immigration officials were courteous, even checking to see if the fuelling berth would take our draft, and Catrina, an American who runs the marina, couldn’t have been more helpful.  We were berthed next to a German couple,  who were also aiming for Brindisi, but had enjoyed Vieste so much that they had prolonged their stay.

As well as running this website, the editor also runs his own yacht delivery business, www.yachtmovers.co.uk, which finds him currently departing from Croatia, attempting to take a Sun Odyssey 42DS, its owner and his crew, from Biograd to Monastir in Tunisia. This also means that updates to the website are likely to be delayed for a couple of weeks - please bear with us! At least Sailers is written and edited by a team who are on the water and know yachting from the inside!