More planning - and a change

Well, the winter progresses and the temperature has taken a dive here which makes us hanker for southern sun all the more. We have been giving more thought to where to go and I have also been consulting others - particularly the Med Section at the Cruising Association. One posting and we now have a wealth of advice most of which is looking very useful.

Our suspicions about the Balearic Islands have been confirmed as being very expensive and overcrowded in high season. Sadly, the mainland coast of Spain is also not looking too attractive and we are now seriously considering heading further east to Sardinnia and Corsica. We would then decide if we wanted to head back to the Atlantic or push furhter east to Greece and Turkey.

There is one worry as reports are coming in of a planned visiting yacht taxt in Italy. The stuff I have read so far has it at 5 Euros a day but reduced by 50% for auxiliary yachts and a further 40% off for older boats which would make it something less than 2 Euros a day for us. I cannot imagine that it would be economical to collect such a small amount of money - not least since it would hardly make a dent in their Berlusconi generated debt of however many trillions of Euros they have. Anyway, it might be Lira by the time we get there!

Apart from that, Christmas, the ROA AGM and the Boatshow are looming. At least the latter two are something to look forward to.