No Winter Sailing in the Mediterranean Sea

In the Mediterranean, it is common knowledge that you can’t sail in the winter. The winds are too strong and the seas are too punishing!

This is what everyone who sails there says, but most people who sail there have “only” sailed there. Bad conditions exist everywhere so it’s a bit of a stretch to say that “this is the worst”. When I read accounts of circumnavigators who sailed the Mediterranean in the winter, they did so on “good days” and said it was rough but still manageable.

So the two types of stories are: “Can’t be done” by people who haven’t sailed elsewhere and this is their first large body of water and “It’s really rough” by people who have crossed an ocean before.

Being how we have weathered a storm off Cape Hatteras and faced Force 11 winds in the middle of the North Atlantic, we felt that we could confidently manage the conditions of the Mediterranean in this winter season.

We waited for what seemed to be a calm period between punishing storms. We were in the middle of the Alboran Sea (the first sea in the Mediterranean) and the conditions became very punishing.

While the winds reached Force 10 with gusts of Force 11 and 12, the waves were only 12 feet high! The problem was that the waves were very close together and very steep, not giving the yacht time to rise and fall over the waves; instead the waves crashed over the boat with punishing blows every few seconds.

Modern European production boats with low build quality would begin to break apart from such relentless pounding, as the deck/hull joint would begin to break open and wreck the whole yacht. Most of the people who only sail the Mediterranean are also cruising on these European production boats and are wise to not venture out into the sea if they wish to return alive and with their yacht still floating! We are cruising on a very old and very heavily built yacht that can take a pounding and keep going. It’s low freeboard means that it offers less of a face to a crashing wave and its heavy construction allows it to resist such punishment.

One thing is being able to do something and the other thing is being nonsensical about such decisions. Just because your car has bullet proof windows doesn’t mean you shoot at it every time you get the chance!

We decided that enough was enough and this punishment was not necessary or worth it!

Crossing the Mediterranean in the Winter

The Mediterranean Sea is known to have very fickle winds. Think about all the old tales of shipwrecks and storms at sea; think of The Odyssey! Well, those tales are true.

In the summer, the Mediterranean is plagued by no wind, while in the winter it is plagued by gales! These gales are not called storms because a storm is strong and unusual wind that is blowing; these are just “the winds”.

We leave our anchorage in Gibraltar and make our way through the Strait of Gibraltar and officially into the Mediterranean Sea. The winds were forecasted to be following us and a bit strong, but nothing we haven’t seen out in the Middle of the Atlantic (or off Cape Hatteras). The winds started out as expected, but then the winds continued to build further and further until they were way beyond our comfort zone!

Rogue Waves

Rogue waves in the North Atlantic are an issue you will have to contend with on an ocean crossing. In this video, we get caught off guard by a massive rogue that crashed into our boat.

We were sailing along calmly with a nice following sea when this rogue came at us from the bow, moving in a direction all on to its own!

​Tip-toeing Around Monsters

When you picture a cloud, you probably see the white puffy part hovering high in the sky. The base is clearly visible above the horizon and the top of the cloud is also in view. These are happy clouds that grace you with shade on a hot ocean day!

Monster clouds are the ones that rise up over the horizon with no visible base. These clouds are so massive that they are located somewhere beyond the curvature of the Earth yet they still take up almost half of the visible sky! These are pressure systems, so massive that they have a different air pressure than their surroundings.

If you are in a high pressure with clear blue skies, these low pressure monsters will look like massive white hazes in the distance. If they are far enough they will look like a white dome, if they are closer, just a hazy white horizon. The winds in these creatures can be quite powerful, so it is best to avoid them.

To do this, you choose your course based on where they are going and stay out of their way. You are a literal ant in a room full of elephants when you are sailing the ocean blue. Don't get stepped on!