Looking back on the summer's cruising, the thought struck me: what an enormous range there is in visitors' charges at marinas, and what an equally wide range of facilities they offer - although the two do not necessarily correspond!
For example, Calais, which charges in euros what you might expect to pay in pounds on this side of the Channel, and so is about half English price, has one of the most high-tech shower blocks seen anywhere. (The light-activated, auto-flushing loos can be a trifle unnerving.)
Just up the coast at Dunkirk, the plumbing is rather more old fashioned - we had to pay extra for shower tokens. Now it's not that long since this was the accepted practice nearly everywhere you went. Nowadays it is almost universally expected that showers are included in the visitors' charge.
Increasingly, electricity is included, too, although not very long ago you expected to be charged extra for that (usually £2, an exorbitant rate for a couple of units of power).
And now there are some helpful harbours that offer free wi-fi, or rather include it in the overnight charge without a visible increase, where in most places you are expected to pay extra for it.
I imagine it's only a matter of time before wi-fi comes to be offered as part of the deal routinely, just as has happened with showers and shore power. But how long will we have to wait?
If you buy a wi-fi season ticket at your home marina, the charge is probably not too scary. But with so many different ISPs involved at different marinas, the chances are that on a cruising holiday you may end up having to pay the single day rate everywhere you go. It is usually £5 - even more of a rip-off than those late, unlamented electricity charges. It all adds up.
More and more people are taking their computers on their boats, perhaps to keep in touch with home or office e-mail, perhaps for entertainment, and most crucially, for collecting weather information.
It's true that most marinas provide free weather info, as far as displaying the latest local forecast on the notice-board, or even giving away print-outs when you go to pay your dues. But you may well want to be looking further ahead and further afield, in planning the next stage of the trip.
“It's a safety issue. It ought to be free. You ought to start a campaign about it on TheMainSail!” suggested a friend. So here is the first shot!
Along with the “gold anchors” awarded to marinas to rate the standard of their facilities, perhaps there should also be “gold mice” for those with wi-fi access:
- One gold mouse for marinas - including the MDL chain, for example - which offer wi-fi, but you have to pay extra for it
- Two gold mice for those like Dover which offer paid for wi-fi, but also have a PC in the harbour office that you can use for free (providing nobody else is hogging it)
- Three gold mice for those like Burnham (I know there are others, but Burnham is the only one we have visited this summer) which provide free wi-fi for all
It's actually quite a selling point. For those who can't do without their computers, it means marinas offering free wi-fi are effectively charging £5 less than their neighbours. And with visitors' berths costing as much as they do, that's a discount worth having.
