Corsica

The Corsican coastline South of Cap Corse.

We left Elba at 7am in a flat calm and headed fro Cap Corse as we had intended to go around the West side of Corsica. When we were still about thirty miles away the wind got up from the North and the sea got quite choppy. We had read the pilot book warnings about the weather around Cap Corse and just thought we couldn't be bothered to punch into the sea all day and then still have miles to go to a decent anchorage. We about turned and headed to Bastia on the East coast instead and at least we could sail there. Typically after we had gone about 15 miles South East in that direction the wind fell away again but we pressed on to Bastia.


Kaylee helping to raise the tricolour again when we thought we had gotten into French territory.

Both marinas there are graded a 5 in the pilots (very expensive) and we realised there wasn't anywhere to anchor so we said one night only and we will get the washing done and hoover (badly needing to do both after a week at anchor!) We called Port Toga and when I asked the price he said don't worry it's not expensive and strangely it turned out not to be, 20 odd Euros with free wifi, something we hadn't seen since Spain! We quickly decided we would stay 3 nights and explore Corsica a little from there. We got all our chores done the first day so that we were ready to go on a train trip the next.

The train we took went from Bastia across the island through the mountains to Ajjacio and the scenery was stunning. From plains to high mountains which were still snow capped, forests and rivers, just lovely. The smell of all the spring flowers wafting in through the windows was amazing too. The only bad bit was it was 4 hours each way and with two little kids that is a lot of time. They did behave very well though especially on the way back when we were better equipped with juice and food we had bought not having realised on the way there there would be no where to buy it on the train/at the station.

Some pictures of the Journey....





Ajaccio itself wasn't so amazing but we had lunch and wandered around there for a few hours before returning to the station.


Kaylee found a peerie pal.


There was a classic boat regatta an and this was one of the only ones not out sailing.


Alisha ate nearly a whole punnet of strawberries on the way home, greedy little pig!

The next day we added the Corsican regional flag to our tricolor courtesy flag. We haven't bought a regional one before but this one is a little more unique than the rest so we liked it. It has the picture of a 'moors head' on it rather than a mixture of stripes and shapes like most other flags.



On our last day in Bastia we went for a walk around the town centre and here are some of the sights we saw.





The other harbour right in town, not very sheltered and more expensive so we were glad we went to Bastia.



A walk through the gardens to the Old City



Alisha liked the handmade quilts and she thought Aunty Janet might like to see them too!



An old sundial.



A lot of the city is in great need of some TLC as you can see!

We met a Danish couple returning with their boat from Croatia to the Balearics and so invited them on board for a beer and info swap as they wanted to know some anchorages in the French riviera area where we had been. It was good to get some places to head for in Croatia as we really have no idea (not having read the pilot yet.....)



Leaving Bastia through the exceedingly narrow entrance! We sailed well actually motored the whole way to the South of Corsica the next day and it was one very long swelly bumpy day and night as we only got to an anchorage at around 12am. we did however see dolphins and pass through a French military firing range, I wasn't as convinced as Ali that it would be OK but it was! We had anchored in a small bay outside the Porto Vecchio harbour not wanting to go in there in the dark but by 5am we had rolled around enough and upped sticks to go into the bay.
When we got there we spied this yacht again, Concerto which had moored up next to us and Enjah in Marseille. Gordon the bloke who skippers it came over in the tender for a chat before they left for Sardinia. We had a very lazy day not even getting off the boat. Ali put his time to good use by making a wooden floor for the dinghy. There were three other British boats anchored too the most we had seen for a while. The anchorage at Porto Vecchio is almost entirely swell free as there is a huge dogleg in the voe which dissipates it and we really appreciated it after the night before.


'Concerto'

The next day we went up to Porto Vecchio old town to have a walk around. The old town is very pretty and full of the usual cafes, craft shops and artisanal food shops to try and prise the pennies out of your purse.

Some Pics.






This bell tower stated dinging away at 12pm and unfortunately we were sitting having a panini right under it. It didn't stop for ten minutes, even the waitress was upset by the time it stopped!





We got all stocked up and ready to leave for Sardinia the next day as we had a rendezvous planned with yacht Solstice we had met in Cartagena. We did leave but on seeing conditions outside of the voe I put a stop to that and we headed back into the anchorage, for the windiest night of anchoring ever which I described in a previous blog.



The club med yacht/cruise liner leaving harbour in 30 plus knots, bet they didn't put those sails up!

I also described the mayhem we caused in the harbour the next day when we went in for shelter and water so I wont go over it again!

Here is a pic of the little Italian boys and the girls watching a DVD together after all the adults had made friends! The girls were delighted as the boys could speak perfect English (at four and seven years old!) They played around all morning until a sad parting when both boats were going their separate ways. Us on a terror ride to Sardinia....





The headland at Porto Vecchio entrance.



The calm seas we encountered on leaving the voe which almost sent Alli into a deep despair until....



30 to 35 knot winds that propelled us at a speed of around 8 knots for four hours thankfully in the direction we wanted me hanging of the top rail most of that time.



As usual the girls weren't phased at all and fell asleep for a part of the journey. I know too that photos never make it look as bad as it felt at the time (or as bad as I felt at the time!)



The angle of the boat achieved with only the jib and a fully reefed main.... The seas coming out of the Bonifacio straits were fairly big and it was a long day. As usual the wind died down to nothing when we still had 20 miles to go and we went from flying along to plodding slowly to the anchorage at Isola di Porri near Olbia where we were meeting up with John and Shirlee, we were just glad to have gotten across the Bonifacio Straits and I don't really want to 'do them' ever again - although the islands in between are beautiful so maybe on the way out of the med next year.