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Tell
us about any number of marinas you have visited, anywhere on earth, or tell us
about one - we'll be delighted to hear from you either way! If you were
favourably impressed we'll publish your recommendations on this page. The best
will get a special place on the Marina Of The Year page. By sharing this
information we can help each other to find the better Marinas and, by default,
to avoid the less good ones.
If you have been disappointed and regret not having taken the time to say so
before leaving, or you have complained and received the impression that nobody
cared whether you got value for money, or not, tell us and, perhaps, if we get
enough complaints about a marina, the management will take notice of a private
letter, stating the main complaints and the numbers making them...
You can scroll down the page or click on an underlined link, just below this
introduction, to see the information we have so far. We do hope you'll take the
time to add your input! As enough information comes in to warrant a separate
page for an area, we'll create one. This being the launch issue of the magazine,
we have put the eight marinas in seven countries listed, so far, all on this
page together.
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AUSTRALIA
CARIBBEAN
CANADA
FRANCE
SINGAPORE
SPAIN
TURKEY
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AUSTRALIA
Ken Ashlee of 'Sweet Karma' , a Stevens 39 built in Tampa, Florida, is from Victoria, British Columbia, he is cruising the Caribbean at the moment. We asked him about marinas he had visited in his
travels. He immediately responded by saying:
"Sydney, Australia has great marinas, all with fabulous facilities and great access to the city. I visited most of them and can't really single one out, they were all great."
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CARIBBEAN
Humming Bird Marine, Chaguaramas, Trinidad, West Indies
by Linnet Woods of Leopard Normand III
This small family marina is owned and run by the La Borde family, Trinidad's first to sail around Cape Horn and
to circumnavigate, Harold, Kwailan and their son, Pierre.
Harold La Borde was awarded the Trinity Cross, Trinidad's highest honour, in
recognition of his achievements and has written three books about his sailing
experiences, in addition to
having various excellent short stories published in local newspapers, and the family made two
first-rate documentary films of their voyages.
Kim, the lady in the office, looks after the telephone and fax
machine, takes in mail for guests and sees to the billing.
Lloyd Woods, in charge of night security, is a mine of information about matters
Trinidadian, especially sports and arts. The murals are his work and he has produced a great deal of carnival artwork over the years too. He is also a
table-tennis coach.
Juma can be seen around the place, early in the mornings, doing regular maintenance and cleaning work and
last, but by no means least, 'Blackie' the gentle resident pot-hound (as they call the black and tan local
dogs) is usually around somewhere.
There is a small shower block for guests, a laundry room and a shed which houses workshop
space, available to guests at reasonable rates.
Berthing is available for boats up to 100 feet and is not over-priced.
No advance bookings but if they know you're coming they may be persuaded to hold a space for a couple of
days, if there is one.
You may like to send someone ashore to take your lines, or call ahead on VHF
channel 68 to see if anyone there can stand by for you, as the place doesn't run
to dock staff (that helps to keep it economical!) but there's usually someone
around to lend a hand.
The marina bar "Voyagers" has fascinating articles on sailors and sailing embedded in the bar
top, pictures on walls and pillars everywhere and model boats adorn the bar shelves too.
At the time of writing there are no meals served at Voyagers, apart from a Saturday night menu of delicious local
food. The rest of the week, there are tasty pies if you fancy a snack. You can,
however, fetch in a take-away pizza from Joe's Pizza Place, two minutes away, or bring a meal from anywhere you
like, for that matter.
And if you are inclined to offer prayers before making a passage, you don't have far to
go.
The family are devout Catholics and Harold made, and erected, a lovely shrine to Our Lady of Fair
Winds, standing in a boat pointing skyward, in the lovely garden of the marina.
Nearby, the shady mango trees deposit a bounty of
mangoes during the mid-year months, to which guests are invited to help themselves when the fancy takes
them.
Alpha Canvas & Upholstery, run by Carlos Fensom and his family is also on site and produces
very good quality work at quite reasonable rates. We had them produce a new set
of livery and replace all the upholstery below, for LNIII and were, and still
are, very pleased with the results.
Altogether a very pleasant place to go if you like a no-frills, no fuss, cheap
and cheerful family marina..
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CANADA
Ken Ashlee, having extolled ALL of Sydney's marinas without exception, told us
about the facilities back home:
Snowflakes in Vancouver, Canada, is a chain of Marinas within Coal
Harbour, all with great access to the city, not for cruisers on a budget but brilliant if you can afford
it. Each marina houses fifteen to twenty boats only, in each Snowflake there is a Sauna, Laundry and
Restaurant. Two of the Snowflake marinas are directly attached to Granville
Island. Others are on the sea wall, you are only 500 metres from the town facilities from
anywhere, and there are even ferries to save you walking.
The people there remind me of the people of Sydney, in some ways.
They know how to look after boats and boat owners.
You can get every marine service you could possibly want - it's like being in Fort
Lauderdale.
In the converted industrial buildings, a sea of glass and pipework, there's a ballet
theatre, various art galleries and two art museums on the island, there are three four star and one five star
restaurants. One restaurant among them, it's like walking into an aquarium, it's on twenty levels
and, everywhere you look there are fish.
For thirty Canadian dollars, roughly the equivalent of twenty US$ (in 1999) you can get a meal which would blow most of the offerings of New York restaurants
away. You can add another fifteen or twenty dollars on for wine and other
beverages.
There is a huge fish and vegetable market on the island too, everything is
fresh. There are wholesale provisioning companies who supply the fishing fleet. They are happy to supply yachts too. You can buy fresh salmon right off the fishing boats there too.
You're about half a day's cruise from Desolation Sound, north of which you'll find upwards of a hundred and fifty islands
and, literally, thousands of miles of coastline. You're likely never to see another boat
there.
Ruby Lake, at the end of one of the fjords above Desolation Sound is considered to be a
medium-sized lake, although you could put the island of Trinidad in it, easily!
British Columbia is wild country. You can charter a little sailboat in Courtney, a little town built round a
square, on Vancouver Island, for a couple of thousand dollars and you're right in the place to start a
cruise. It has to be cheaper than taking your own boat there unless you are passing that way
anyway.
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FRANCE
Juan Les Pins Marina, France (south)
This is another favourite with more than a few of our readers and acquaintances. Not as expensive as Monaco but dearer than Cannes, so
again, it's not really a budget cruiser's destination, except as a treat.
The harbour is a rounded basin-shape, it's actually a lot larger than it looks on the
approach,
accommodating a 160' yacht without any difficulty, to the owner's relief.
A very pretty place, with plenty of splendid shops and restaurants, you'll find it between Nice and Antibes on the south coast of
France, where 'cheap' is not a word which comes to mind but 'glorious' is.
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SINGAPORE
Raffles Marina, Singapore
If you want utter luxury and, naturally, a bill to match, the marina built as an adjunct to Raffles Hotel around a decade ago, is
IT, says
Dag Blidback of 'Star Dust'. He would certainly go again.
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SPAIN
Barcelona Public Marina, Spain (southeastern coast)
This marina, on the eastern coast of Spain, is a favourite with Stefan Arndt of
Berlin, Germany, who cruises aboard his
Etape 32 'Miss Milla'.
"I love it", he says "because it is right in the centre of the
city".
He says the marina itself is perfectly adequate, not spectacular, but it is the fact that one can step off the boat and straight into the
wonders of the architecture of Barcelona which make it a brilliant marina.
The crew of Leopard Normand III were there in July/August1997, on an overnight
stop, whilst delivering a Rampart 48 motor yacht to France. We ended up staying an extra
day, for the same reason - it was such a wonderful sight-seeing opportunity, we could not resist
exploring.
We also enjoyed some delicious wines and 'tapas' ( little dishes of goodies to nibble
on, preventing early inebriation, like meat in tomato sauce, calamares (Squid) or avocado slices with olive oil, lemon and black
pepper, for example) and found the security arrangements at the marina meant we felt quite secure in leaving the boat unattended in the
evenings.
Torre Vieja, Spain (southeastern coast)
A lovely place, says Stefan Arndt of 'Miss Milla'.
Friendly, comfortable and not at all expensive.
He says that, in some ways, it's a 'sticking point', one of those places people end up in for
ever, having waited for a 'window in the weather' until their beards grow so long and grey they find themselves tethered to the dock by the chin
hair.
It is, on the other hand, and possibly for the same reason, a place to meet many eccentric and fascinating
characters.
A dismasted British sailor, taken root, receives weather telexes from Germany which he pins up at the marina office as a service to those who have the intention of moving
on.
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TURKEY
Netzel Marina, Marmaris, Turkey
San Franciscan, 'Dave' on the 53' catamaran 'Mandarine' can't remember quite how you spell
it, but says that Netzel might be right...
Dag Blidback, formerly of 'Star Dust' and now new captain of 'Snipe', agrees with him when he
says:
Netzel Marina, in Marmaris, Turkey, is a wonder.
With marble bathrooms, even marble tiled docks, it is very luxurious and yet very reasonably
priced.
The services are excellent and the staff are wonderful.
It is such a pretty place.
Both agreed that they loved Netzel and Marmaris in general.
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Can you share details of marinas worth visiting? We'd love to
hear from you.
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