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.

First year anniversary! and a Med wild life watch report!

Well that is a year past now, we set off from the Boating Club pontoon in Scalloway at 10am on Sunday May 31st 2009! We have made it as far as southern Corsica, would have been Sardinia but there has been a bit of a gale blowing here around for the last day or so. We are still loving most of it but it is lucky I am writing this now and not a lot earlier or I would have had a different take on things as today started rather badly really.....

We had a very rolly calm swelly day on the way down here on Thursday and Ali vowed that he was going to wait for decent wind to go to Sardinia as he was tired of rolling around in the swell, so we looked at the weather and it was changeable on Sat and a steady 15 to 25 knots of Westerly wind on Sunday. That was it we would wait for the sail of our lives on Sunday. I was as usual fretting a little as I generally think 15 knots is a perfect wind speed for me (fair weather sailor that I am and bane of Ali's life!) Anyway we woke at 7 on Sunday morning anchored as we had been quite happily in the bay outside of Porto Vecchio harbour for two nights as I was thinking it was time to get up and make the pancake batter the wind picked up. Then the wind picked up, oh yes and then it picked up just a little more! It wasn't westerly either as the reports had told us it was S-SW and would be right 'on the nose' most of the way to our planned port of La Maddalena. We decided to do some school after breakfast and then go out and see what was happening. Well needless to say the further we went out of the Voe the more antsy I got and when we turned the way we wanted to go and the waves were breaking over the boat I just said no way, I don't mind this if it isn't on the nose but it is and that's it we are going back. Now you can imagine the mood that quickly descended over the boat.... but as we were coming back to our anchorage we were recording 38 knots and climbing so I felt a bit better. By the time we got re anchored the wind was blowing constantly at 25 to 30 knots and still SW so even Skipper decided we were actually better off where we were, or so we thought!

We made roast chicken for dinner and it was just as darkness was falling and we were getting ready for bed that the wind really did pick up, even though it is a well protected anchorage we were swinging around like a cork on a float and I started to worry about anchor drag as the wind had changed and we would be shore bound if anything gave. By 11pm the wind was over 40 knots and even Captain was worried so he said he would stay up on the first anchor watch, something we have never done before so I now knew it was getting a little serious. Get some sleep were my orders as I would be on later but sleep was not forthcoming (obviously) and when Ali switched in the engine "just in case" sleep wasn't even a far off option! We had the GPS anchor alarm, the computer and depth gage on to cover all the bases. Amazingly enough this part of the tale ends very well if very sleepily, Ali stayed up until 3 and as the wind had dropped to a respectable 35 knots he got me 'up' for my stint. Having only managed to drowse since about 2.30am my watch consisted of turning the laptop towards the couch, and with every jerk of the boat waking up to see if we were still in enough water. Maybe not entirely under control I must admit. The anchor by some miracle held all night. We listened to the Italian weather forecast in the morning and it was predicting more fierce winds especially in the area we were, we had almost run out of water so we decided to head for the marina and this is where all the fun really began.

As we headed in there were numerous really strong gust and we prayed that we would manage to berth in a quiet lull, it was not to be. We headed over to the side of the marina with the most space but the attendant shouted us over to the tightest bit of the whole place we were crapping it, we were full fendered but it didn't look good, how right we were! We had to turn a tight corner into the wind then head into one spot and back at an angle across the wind into another. This really is the tightest marina we have been in yet and looking at it later there was no chance of success in those conditions. As we went astern I was getting orders to fend off one side then the other and then CRUNCH we hit someones anchor at the other side which pushed our stern anchor arrangement to scrape the boat we were trying to berth next to, unfortunately Italian. We were still trying to get in when the owner joined me on the deck and started shouting his head off at me to which obviously I said sorry a hell of a lot and he continued even though we still weren't completely in and could have done with a bit more help. I was trying to push fenders down between our boats and he says I bent his stanchion too (which I dispute as I am not that strong or he needs better stanchions!) Anyway it wasn't good, he shouted at me for a good five minutes whilst Ali was at the bow getting the mooring lines attached. You stupid woman etc etc you come in here like a destroyer and do not care you say you are sorry but you are not (actually I was but getting less so by the moment.) When Ali cam back aft he seemed to move away and calm down a little but I told Ali what had all gone on and he asked the bloke to show him the damage, which there was a 5cm by 1cm slight scrape. Ali said sorry too and that he had some gel coat onboard and he would fix it for him. OK - what after the bollocking I got typical! Will shout at a woman but not a man! Anyway he then proceeded to rave about how stupid ! was in near perfect English to the crew of the other Italian boat next door, obviously all for my benefit and he got his intended rise as I was nearly in tears by this point and they were all laughing. I decided to take the fight fire with fire route recommended to me by Mark Burgess (cheers mate, not!) I called him over and said that I was actually sorry whether he believed me or not and that we have been sailing for a year from our home port and his is the first boat we had ever damaged. He just started shouting more and Ali pulled me away. He kept on going to anyone who would listen outside loud enough for me to hear inside and I have to admit the tears started falling then after a night with no sleep it was inevitable really. He called Ali up on deck once again to complain about me (was I the only one there??) Lets just say it wasn't a pleasant morning and the real shame we thought was that they had two boys on board who were about ages with the girls, normally we would have been encouraging contact but Kaylee and Alisha were too scared of the nasty man to go anywhere near them.

Anyway the day passed, both boats sat out on deck for lunch but didn't look or speak to each other then the same at tea time but Ali and I had a glass of wine then decided to at least try and speak. We gave the girls some chocolate to take over to the boys which broke the ice then we invited the adults over for some Scotch, a sure fire winner. It turns out they were quite nice really, the kids at 4 and 7 speak perfect English! The girls were delighted and we adults all got on pretty well too. The old bloke is an ex 747 captain and has been sailing around for years so gave us lots of tips, he also said that I would have to get used to the impulsive nature of Italians. It is a wonder what a couple of glasses of whiskey can do for someone!

The night has ended as expected, they left, Ali followed, I cleared up and got the kids to bed then Ali came back for the rest of the bottle of whiskey. Someone came knocking me up to go over to another Italian boat they were all on, I got there, Ali fell asleep and asked to be taken home. We could have been in Gardie!

The wind is finally supposed to die down tomorrow so we can head southwards and hopefully to catch up with John and Shirley the American couple we met a few times last year. Most days are far, far better than this and it turned out pretty well in the end anyway so not too much to worry about. Apparently as the evening went on Ali discovered he isn't an airline pilot but actually some kind of owner and owns two private helicopters so a peerie scratch won't hurt too much!

Here is a picture of the girls taken in Bastia a few days ago they have fairly sprouted up over the last year, and are starting to brown and go blonde in the hot sun againno matter how much we keep them out of it.



Now for the Med wild life report.....

Last post I mentioned the crazy jelly fish, well every day we are out sailing we keep our eyes peeled for fish, dolphins, whales etc. Nearly every day we see absolutely zilch.

Birdlife -

We have been surprised with how little birds there are anywhere after you leave the British Isles the coast seem positively quiet without the squawking of scories.

Here is one little fellow that stopped for a lift in the Ligurian Sea a couple of weeks ago.



When we were anchored up the river Arno we saw a few of these guys hanging around the reed banks. We do see other birds but as they are so few and far between it is nigh impossible to get a picture. Saw a good few eagle types flying around the mountains in mid Corsica ans lots of swallows now wherever there is some kind of belfry.



Now for the sealife, we look and we look in vain for large sea animals, the last time we saw dolphins was in the middle of the gulf du Lyon and before that Gibraltar! No whales in the med we saw one in Southern Portugal last year, Shetland is far better for whale spotting I have never not seen a few whales when sailing around Shetland each year. We have seen a sunfish and Ali saw a flying fish the other day. Now here is what we managed to catch on camera.....

One day we were motoring along to Lerici and we saw a lump in the water, and turned around to investigate, no less than a dead pig. Poor little fellow.



The rest of that day the girls were on high alert for log watch (or wog watch as Kaylee who still can't pronounce l called it) as there seemed to be loads of substantial lumps of tree in our path.



The next sailing day brought even more horror as the only sea life we saw was this poor dolphin, whatever next we thought....



We thought this was a dead cow from a distance on the way to Elba but thankfully it turned out to be another log. It does almost look like ears sticking up though....



Then we spotted this turtle on the way to Corsica!



Finally on Thursday as we motored on down from Bastia we got a very brief glimpse of a few dolphins and this is the only photo I got, it is a dolphin, honest!



That's it! It is funny when you come from a place like Shetland you really take wildlife for granted, especially sea life, Orcas become a normal sight, dolphins regular sailing companions, minke whales almost commonplace, but they aren't and we should think ourselves lucky to live in such a place (especially as it has very few grumpy Italians too!)

That's it for now! The next report will come from Sardinia all going well.