I’ve made some notes on marinas and places we have been for a) my future reference possibly and b) for others. However, it should be noted that these are observations from my point of view which is more about the facilities they offer me rather than how easy to enter or hazards in etc.
A reminder, we are on a 38foot catamaran and fuel for us is unleaded to run our two 9.8hp outboard engines, plus the little one for the tender.
Marinas included: Falmouth UK, Braye Alderney, Sainte Evette France, ACoruna Spain, Camarinas Spain, Portosin Spain, Combarro Spain, Povoa de Varzim Portugal, Figueria de Foz Portugal, Nazare Portugal
Falmouth Marina, Falmouth, Cornwall UK
October 2014 to April 2015
Security fob issued for gates to pontoon and for out of hours access to showers, toilets and laundry
Showers – 4 or 5 individual unisex with a shower cubicle, toilet & basin plus additional small shower stalls in ladies and gents loos. Hairdryer provided in ladies was rubbish, I used the hand dryer to dry my hair.
Laundry – excellent. Two commercial size washers and dryers. For £4.50 could wash and dry a large load
Wifi – non existent the whole time we were there. In March they said they were having a new provider and indeed there were engineers on pontoons but still no wifi by 7th April 2015 when we left.
Fuel – definitely diesel, not sure about unleaded as we used petrol station at Asda a 5 minute drive (up hill).
Electricity on pontoon metered and charged monthly or as you leave.
Parking – plenty
Restaurant, hairdresser, small chandlers, training centre and yacht broker also on site.
Other info – 15minute walk along Penryn river to Falmouth town, Sainsburys and Lidl supermarkets 5minute walk.
Braye Harbour, Alderney
May 2015
No pontoons – anchor or pick up white visitor mooring buoys
At time of visit £5 to anchor and £15 for buoy
Water Taxi available 7am to midnight in season £3 per trip
Showers – 2 showers have to press for water to run for 30 seconds or so. Can’t control temperature but hot enough. Dressing area within shower cubicle. No facility to plug in hair dryer. Bent head at low angle to get under hand dryer.
Laundry – two domestic washers and dryers based on a timer system. Bizarrely the shortest wash I could find with a 40degree wash was 1hour and 45mins long. A ridiculous amount of time then needed at least an hour in the dryer. Cost in total around £8 per load to wash and dry
Sailing club bar open from 6pm to 8pm daily and 12-2 on Sunday’s
Mainbrayce Chandlers by old harbour
Diesel and unleaded available from them
Duty free can be ordered from Mainbrayce and delivered to your boat just before you leave
Bars and restaurants close by and the chip shop with sit in and take away (odd opening hours). Supermarket 5 minutes walk. Doesn’t stay open late.
Town a 15minute walk with more bars and restaurants and shops
Sainte Evette, Brittany, France
June 2015
No pontoons only anchor or mooring buoys.
No charge made out of their season (their season 2nd week July to end of August).
Showers – timer of 5 minutes for €2 but only open odd hours when an attendant is on. A sign is on the door but don’t take it too literally. Separate ladies and gents with 2 or 3 showers in each with dressing room in cubicle.
Laundry – excellent if bit pricey. One each of domestic and industrial washer and dryer. Need to buy token from machine for each. €6.50 for big wash and €4.50 for big dry. The hot of the dryer was burning hand hot.
Cafe bar, small shop selling sandwiches and basic supplies, crepe shop.
Fuel – don’t know about diesel but no unleaded. Taxi ride to supermarket for fuel.
A few bars near Sainte Evette but mostly concentrated in Audierne a 40minute walk, same for supermarket.
ACoruna, Galicia, Spain
June 2015
Pontoons, large marina
Monohull prices for catamarans if using pontoon 10, which is the furthest from shore (€32 per night)
Swell was a constant pain. The main pontoon could sometimes be seen twisting like an earthquake was twisting it.
Showers – good with 3 showers with fixed heads and dressing room in shower cubicle. Plug sockets for hairdryer, lockers.
Laundry – ok. Domestic size 3 washers and 2 dryers. Work on a timer. Notice says €4 for 40degree wash. However I put in €1 and picked a wash that only took 55minutes therefore only needed €3. Dryers not much good. €3 for an hour but self condensing ones and didn’t get washing dry enough to put away even after another 40minutes.
Wifi only good signal when at reception. Also desktop machine available in reception.
Electricity and water on pontoon no extra charge
Bar/restaurant on site, shop selling basic provisions, fishing gear and very small chandlers.
Supermarket 15 minute walk and “hidden” in old town.
Bus from Plaza d’Espana to Marinada City €1.30 each way takes you throw the city to shopping complex with Primark, IKEA, De Athlon, C&A plus others.
Camarinas, Ria de Camarinas, Galicia, Spain
June 2015
Small but efficient and friendly
2 Showers for ladies basic but worked fine with communal dressing area
Electricity and water on pontoon no extra charge
No laundry on site
Bar/restaurant very friendly and reasonable
Cheapest marina we’ve been in for price per night (€15)
Wifi worked at cafe
Connection:JAZZTEL_
Town very close by with 3 supermarkets
English not widely spoken at marina or cafe
Portosin, Ria de Muros, Galicia, Spain
July 2015
Expensive certainly for catamaran. (€51) First place we’ve been where they have charged +50% for a catamaran. Although they do charge less for each consecutive night.
Showers, lots of them with communal dressing area
Laundry – good large machines that say they include washing liquid and softener although I’m not convinced but we were asked not to add any of our own. €8 for a wash and dry
Electricity and water on pontoon no extra charge
Wifi -only marina so far where wifi has worked when we’re on the boat
Connection: PANTALANES/PANTALNES2 password: Pantalanes2015
Cafeteria Password: cafeteria2015
Supermarket 10mins walk
Bus to Noia 15 mins – Noia is an historic large town. Bus station next to a large supermarket and 2minute walk to Central square with cafes and bars.
Not secure, none of the pontoon gate locks were engaged and anyone could come in from the road and also use showers and laundry. I only mention security here as the pilot book we has suggests it is a secure place to leave your boat if visiting ashore or changing crew.
Swell from fishing boats charging in
Combarro, Ria de Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain
July 2015
€27 per night
3 ladies showers and communal dressing area
Electricity and water on pontoon no extra charge
No laundry on site although it says laundry service available but can’t confirm this
Cafe/bar
Wifi as seems to be the norm when they give you the code you are told it’s not working. It connected while near the office but was very slow and patchy.
Supermarket 5 mins walk, top of small hill – Foiz
Lovely historic fishing town with lots of bars and restaurants
Povoa de Varzim, Portugal
July 2015
€18 per night (charged at monohull rate)
4 ladies showers with integral changing areas
Socket for hairdryer
Electricity and water on pontoon no extra charge
Wifi Connection: Marina 04 Password:- 2020202020
Laundry – 2 washers and 1 dryer at €2.50 is the cheapest I’ve come across and it is an honesty one, you pay in the office, no tokens or coins required to operate. I did think that once there was a smell of wet dog in the laundry room. Turned out a chap was washing his ropes and lines in the machines!
Fingerprint access for pontoons, showers, laundry
Book swop on site with large selection of books in English and German
30min walk to supermarket although smaller shops with bread are nearer
15min walk to Metro station with excellent and cheap links to Porto (Trindade is central stop) and to Portas Franchas which is just 2 stops down to a Lidl. Express service stops here. There is also a large shopping outlet at stop Modivas Centro about 10mins with shuttle bus running between station and centre. Express service does NOT stop here.
The Lidl is about a 40min walk but easy by bike. Turn right out of the marina, Vila do Condo, then there is a sign about half a mile up pointing to the left to Lidl.
Metro is good link to the airport.
Excellent marina with really friendly and helpful staff.
Figueria de Foz, Portugal
July 2015
€45 for first night then sliding scale for subsequent nights.
Marina office and reception/fuel (diesel and unleaded) pontoons directly ahead as you enter marina. Berthing to left and right. However berthed boaties have a long walk to the marina office and facilities as there is no pedestrian access from the berths except at either end of the marina and the office is in the middle. As the crow flies we were 20m from the facilities but took 10mins to walk there.
Key fobs for access to facilities and pontoons.
Showers good, 3 ladies with small integral changing areas
Laundry – 2 washers one dryer – look fairly new and modern with just four programmes. Need tokens. Didn’t use these and don’t know how much.
Small chandlers, didn’t see it open. Said it had book swop but could only see about a dozen books through the window.
Small cafe/bar with some provisions and ice available.
Small Supermarket up a side street about 5mins walk once off the pontoons. Selection of fresh meats and cheese on produce counter plus usual selection.
There is a Pingu Doce supermarket but not sure where that is. Another boatie said it was a long walk.
Nazare, Portugal
July 2015
€31 per night – be prepared to have the right cash available both for the nights stay and the deposit key
€30 deposit for key to facilities and a code for the pontoon gate. However, we saw a chap jump the wall to let his family down on to the pontoons so the little lad could fish with his net.
An easy place to dismiss and not want to stay based on marina. Marina is very small, smallest we have been in and looks very tatty and neglected. It is right next to the fishing fleet but surprisingly little wash. The marina itself, is as the guides say, extremely protected from the weather. We arrived in fog and from what we could see little made us want to stay longer than necessary. However, Alec and his friend Dodi came to chat to us not long after we arrived. Alec, English chap, has been here for many years and has applied to take over the pontoons. There are a number of boats here for the long term having arrived and loved it.
Don’t let the stray dogs roaming near the marina office and facilities put you off. The marine office is back a-ways from the pontoon.
Small cafe/bar with basic groceries next to office – nearly didn’t go into this but after struggling to find provisions in town, I bought almost as much from here. Luis(Louis) was extremely friendly and has a great selection of fresh cakes/pastries, bread and you go behind the counter to the “shop” bit.
There is a bus that runs between the marina and the town – the timetable is on the door of the marina office.
The mini hyper market, as the fuel station purports itself, is misleading. Very basics.
Couldn’t find a decent supermarket. There is one in the town, behind the Tourist office to the left side, but it was barely stocked and had no fresh meats of any sort and we couldn’t find a butcher. Apparently there is a Pingo Doce but it is out of town.
The fuel station is on the main road at the other end of the harbour by the private marina.
Showers:- 2 ladies with integral changing area. Tatty looking but clean and warm free running water. Socket for hairdryer.
No laundrette
Glad we stayed though as we walked along the marina wall towards the garage, there is a gate in the fence here, and into the town.
We walked along the seafront, which was not like Blackpool on steroids as we had seen it described, to the venicular tram that goes up the cliff to the old town on the top. The views from up there are stunning. In July 2015, Nazare is the holder of the largest wave ever surfed and most photos of this are from the lighthouse on the top.
Although we are glad we stayed to go visit the old town, it still isn’t somewhere I could see me staying long term.
(update 8th Aug 2015: from comment that Dody, Nazare resident made on blog post ’Taking a Break’ on www.thegledaproject.com:- there are 8 butchers shops in Nazare, a large fruit/veg/fish/meat market plus other larger supermarkets including a Lidl. It’s just a matter of knowing where they are)