2023-05-26 17:28:00
SFor two years, Marc Bielefeld has been sailing with his girlfriend on a Whitby 42 ketch through the western Mediterranean, from Barcelona to the Balearic Islands, on to Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and the Tunisian coast. As a diver and author of sailing books, the 57-year-old literally gets to the bottom of the destinations. In his latest book he deals with long-term sailing in the Mediterranean.
WELT: Apart from the Ukraine war, the Germans only know one thing at the moment: inflation. How painful is the price spiral for sailors in the Mediterranean?
Marc Bielefeld: We are in Sardinia now; in the ports and small shops the world is still halfway in order in this respect. We have not yet experienced massive price jumps here. In the bars where I drink my wine, a glass costs four euros and a cappuccino 1.50. But you have to know where to go. Also in the supermarkets in Sardinia the prices have not risen so extremely. But we don’t need much anyway with our lifestyle.
WELT: Are you self-sufficient on your boat?
Bielefeld: Largely. If we are not in the harbor but anchoring in a bay, the electricity from our 200-watt solar bag is sufficient for cool boxes, mobile phones, computers and cameras. The two 12-volt batteries are always full, so the sun doesn’t have to be constantly pounding.
I know a few sailors who make their life on the boat even more self-sufficient. In addition to solar panels, they have small wind turbines that feed the batteries. More and more now also have a desalination plant on board, because only when you can convert seawater into drinking water are you almost completely independent.
WELT: To sail carefree around the world?
Bielefeld: Also, but not only. There has always been a saying among sailors that has gained even more weight in these troubled times: “If all else fails, we’ll take the boat and get out.” I believe that for some sailors this is no longer just a theoretical one thought is.
Marc Bielefeld needs little money to live on the boat
Source: Silke Lipsmeier
WELT: Does that apply to you too?
Bielefeld: No, my girlfriend and I are not that far yet. We have 400 to 500 liters of water in the tanks, which is enough for washing dishes, cooking and drinking for four weeks if necessary. But Silke bakes her own bread on board and makes yoghurt, for example. This is delicious and further lowers your own consumption curve.
WELT: How much money do you need to live on?
Bielefeld: As liveaboards, as permanent sailors are called in the scene, we need two little. It is mainly the boat that costs. Paint, spare parts, sometimes a new seacock. But if nothing extravagant is added, the cost of a 13 meter yacht like ours is no higher than that of a camper van. And the fuel costs are very low.
WELT: Are there many liveaboards on the Mediterranean?
Bielefeld: There are probably thousands of sailors from many nations on the Mediterranean who sail their boats – and live on them. For a year. For two, three. Or indefinitely. Many are in cheap ports and use the boat as a tiny house with a mast.
WELT: Are dropouts on the sea more privileged, richer than “land-based” globetrotters?
Bielefeld: I can’t answer that, I don’t have the comparison. We have met liveaboards of all ages and nationalities. For example, there were Ken and Maureen, Americans, 80 years old, fit and in the best of spirits. They have been sailing the Mediterranean in their 10-metre-long ship for 15 years.
We met Australians, French, Italians, some with whole families on board. The kids just do boat schooling. We met young and old, German couples, British pensioners who had worked as administrators all their lives. Now they live on their sailboat. Many rent out their homes on land – or have given them up entirely. And no, most of them don’t have that much money. Pretty much everything is tumbling around on the boats just like in real life.
WELT: So you’re not alone in the ports in winter?
Bielefeld: No, unlike the North and Baltic Seas, the ports will not be closed either, because most yachts remain in the water all year round. In winter there is a lot less activity in the ports, but the mooring fees are cheaper. You only pay a fraction of the summer prices. In the high season, in July and August, guest boaters can easily get rid of 100 euros per night for a 12-metre yacht. I know a few sailors who now leave their boat in the summer and go north to Scandinavia for two months.
WELT: Because of the cost?
Bielefeld: Yes, partly, but also because of the rising temperatures. Because it is getting warmer and warmer in the Mediterranean. Last summer I dived off Mallorca to a depth of ten meters, the water temperature down there was 30 degrees, even at a depth of over 35 meters the water was still over 20 degrees. For diving, this feels very nice, but also kind of scary.
Marine biologists I spoke to said that the Mediterranean Sea has heated up much faster than the rest of the planet in recent years, and that six months a year with water temperatures of up to 26 degrees is the new standard in many places in the Mediterranean. And the air is still warmer; a 40 degree wind blew in our face last year while sailing off the coast of western Sardinia. At night, in May! In July and August we then had 40 degrees permanently, sometimes significantly more. Something has definitely changed in terms of climate in the Mediterranean region.
WELT: Haven’t there always been such fluctuations and temperature outbursts up and down?
Bielefeld: Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that we seem to be back in a phase where winds are becoming more unpredictable and abrupt storms are becoming more violent. A brutal storm raged off Corsica in 2021 that came out of nowhere. A cold air cell from Ireland had strayed onto the sweltering hot Mediterranean Sea. It came to a weather explosion like in a test tube.
Winds of well over 100 knots caught sailors, but also campers on land; at 60 knots one speaks of hurricane strength. And although wind forecasts and thunderstorm forecasts are fortunately quite precise today and you can expect crazy weather in advance, there were deaths in Corsica at the time.
WELT: What are the biggest dangers that you have to be prepared for as a sailor and diver in the Mediterranean, for example, are the rising sea temperatures attracting more large tropical fish?
Bielefeld: Maybe, but we haven’t seen a single dangerous fish yet, not even on dives. I’m often happy when a harmless dentex swims by.
A fascinating experience: Marc Bielefeld dives between tuna
Source: Silke Lipsmeier/Marc Bielefeld
WELT: It is said that 80 percent of the fish stocks in the Mediterranean are overfished.
Bielefeld: Yes, and that’s why I was totally fascinated when I saw schools of mighty bluefin tuna while diving off Sardinia. Unfortunately, that often doesn’t happen anymore. Even in the extensive marine protection zones around the Balearic Islands, the situation for flora and fauna is not the best. And that means for us sailors to have to live with certain conditions.
WELT: Which are they?
Bielefeld: It must not be anchored everywhere in order to protect the seagrass meadows, where a third of all species in the sea grow. That’s why park rangers often drive through the bays several times a day and check all anchored boats to make sure that the anchor is in the sand and not in the seaweed.
WELT: And if so?
Bielefeld: Then the boats have to weigh anchor and cast elsewhere; Fines are usually only imposed if the owner refuses or scolds. The rangers told me that it would not be possible to completely block the bays, which would certainly be the best thing for the seagrass fields. The holiday business with the now thousands upon thousands of yachts for the Balearic Islands is too important for that.
Of course, there are also sea zones where anchoring is only allowed at a few buoys. But these places are usually reserved weeks in advance, for example the buoys around La Cabrera, 30 nautical miles from Mallorca’s capital Palma. Anyone who anchors wildly there must expect high penalties. La Cabrera is a barren, uninhabited archipelago with a lighthouse, a ruined fortress and a few goats, and I can well imagine that Cabrera is also being left to conservation because it is rather uninteresting as a tourist cash cow.
WELT: Now that sounds very fatalistic.
Bielefeld: In fact, when we circumnavigated Mallorca in high season in 2022, we felt as if we were sailing along a fever edge, along inflamed shores. Because there is hardly a spot by the sea, hardly an accessible rock on which there is no hotel, villa or holiday home.
Anchoring off Mallorca: The heavily built-up coast of the island makes Marc Bielefeld ponder
Source: Silke Lipsmeier
WELT: Where else in the Mediterranean can sailors find postcard beaches?
Bielefeld: It will be difficult to find completely lonely Robinson islands, but there are still many beautiful bays without mass tourism, especially around Sardinia, on the coasts of Corsica and even in the La Maddalena archipelago.
WELT: But aren’t these also the hot spots for the Mediterranean jet set?
Bielefeld: That might be the case in midsummer. But from September the shores empty, sea and air are still warm, but the crowds have disappeared. If you really want to anchor far away from all common sailing areas in the high season, you should head for Pantelleria.
This is a small volcanic island south of western Sicily. The world above and below the water still seems to be in order there. When we were there we saw more fishing boats than there are berths in the harbor. But even this far-flung island off the African coast is losing its authenticity. Giorgio Armani has an estate on Pantelleria, and where he is, others usually want to be too.
WELT: It is clear that you are thinking of the high society and not of boat people, but the question remains: What do the current regulations provide for when sailors meet refugees in the Mediterranean?
Bielefeld: There are no regulations in that sense. As a yacht sailor, you should inform the authorities immediately. At sea, this means sending a radio message and informing commercial shipping, which in turn alerts the so-called distress control centers (MRCC). If the refugee boat is unable to manoeuvre, one should stand by and wait for a more suitable vessel than a small yacht to come to the rescue. If people are in mortal danger, you have to help as best you can. This is obligated by an old tradition at sea: the so-called seamanship.
Marc Bielefeld has been working as a journalist for renowned daily newspapers for 25 years, writes regularly for nautical publications and is the author of several books on sailing such as “Who has sea needs less” and “Instructions for sailing”. His book “Once again paradise. A sailing adventure to the limits of our freedom” has just been published by Piper Verlag, it has 256 pages and costs 22 euros.
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