Passage making and departing Corsica
26 August 2019 | East coast of Corsica
Ros Brice | Sunny and hot
Departure was planned for 11:00 next morning, with a brief shopping expedition using the rental car before it needed to be returned. The supermarket was called Electric and it was huge! The biggest problem we had was where to find the trolleys! Once that was sorted we did some speed shopping so that the car deadline of 10:00 wasn't breached.
The shopping stowed, the girls found time for a coffee ashore, which was a treat we hadn't managed before. The first cafe refused to serve us coffee because we didn't want food (!) but the second cafe was more welcoming and we settled in for a short relax. The men had been busy with various jobs but Trilogy departed smoothly at 11:00. We have made a practice of calling the marina on the VHF radio soon after departure to thank them for their hospitality, which seems to be appreciated.
Our destination was Baie de San Ciprianu, a large bay immediately north of the entry to Porto-Vecchio. This is a popular place with several hotels and a camping ground. The water was very clear and we found ourselves anchored among the waterskiing brigade. There were also paragliders swooping overhead and the usual donut and banana boat riders screaming their heads off! It was a bit dangerous to swim too far from Trilogy, but the water and swim was most enjoyable.
We could see the mountain range that we had visited the day before and for most of the afternoon a storm was brewing. The mountains cloud cover looked ominous and we didn't find it hard to imagine what was happening up there. We fully expected that the storm would come in Trilogy's direction and we were entertained for quite some time, expecting the thunder and lightning to arrive, but it didn't! The paragliders kept flying until there was no more light and the skidoos kept churning along, at breakneck speed.
The cruising plan goal was to circumnavigate Corsica, which meant we were now committed to motor/cruising up the east coast which had very few anchorages that afforded protection from the prevailing easterly winds. We departed at 07:30 next morning and turned north, travelling close enough to the coast to enjoy the beauty of the mountains coming down to the sea, the almost continuous golden sandy beaches and the small townships that hugged the coast, the biggest being Solenzara. There have been a few marinas built, but mostly to accommodate small local craft. We had not enjoyed the marina in Bastia when we first made landfall after the sail from Isola d'Elba, mostly because it was very hot, yet this marina was the only one that could have accommodated Trilogy. Our choice was to push on, avoid Bastia altogether, and by 21:10 we were anchored at Portoicciolo, a small bay that would give us good protection overnight and minimise the swell that had been running all day. It had been a fairly stress free day, with only a bit of sail hoisting and a current that had set us back one knot. The amazing thing was that it was Portoicciola that Trilogy had anchored in 8 years earlier and we had strong memories of very strange people and tin cow cutouts on the headland. The cows had gone and we didn't venture ashore to test the locals! The anchor was barely bedded in when we all jumped into the clear refreshing water to cool off. We had freshly made frittata for dinner and then it was lights out, but not before toasting the circumnavigation of Corsica!
A rest day followed the marathon day. We awoke to another beautiful morning and a good swim for exercise was what we wanted. After morning tea it was time to move on a little and 6NMs further north we anchored in Baie de Tamarone, just north of the little fishing village of Macinaggio, three quarters of the way up Cap Corse, the 'finger' of Corsica. Nearby were rocky islets known as Iles Finocchiarola, which gave us the opportunity to take the tender over for some snorkelling in the incredibly clear water. The outermost islet had a conspicuous Genoese tower on it and there was the wreck of a coastal trader on the northern side, which made for interesting snorkelling. There were more fish around these islets and beautiful rock formations, due to it being a Nature Reserve.....the fish know these things!
In the 16C, the Genoese were anxious to develop agriculture in Corsica, though it was their own needs and not the Corsicans that they had in mind. They encouraged the cultivation of wheat and olives on the northeast plains of Corsica to export to Genoa and they needed a substitute for the Corsican's own consumption. The solution was chestnuts! The chestnuts grew readily on the steep mountain slopes where wheat could not be grown and the flour made from the chestnuts replaced flour made from wheat. It gave rise to a whole cuisine based around chestnuts and pork from the pigs that foraged for chestnuts. Today, chestnut flour is hardly used at all though domestic and wild pigs still feature prominently in Corsican cuisine.
Trilogy was to leave the Corsican waters and journey across the Ligurian Sea to the Italian Riviera, some 70 NMs. Visiting Corsica has been a beautiful experience. To quote from a book by Dorothy Carrington about this granite island: 'The mountains surged into the sky, behind, beyond and above one another, ending in rows of cones and spikes and square topped knobs like gigantic teeth. Their lower slopes, smothered in vegetation, look uninhabited and impenetrable.' This poetic description is how the mountains affected us. We were often spellbound, just gazing at their majesty, the crispness of the ridge lines and the colours they reflected back to us. In our close up inspections of the natural landform, the granite has been moulded and contoured into some most intriguing and beautiful shapes. There were many seemingly impossible balancing rocks, holding firm through time and weather events, yet looking like their balancing act could be over at any moment! Maybe this is a metaphor for Corsica, a land that has historically endured a tug of war for sovereignty, and yet the balance is being maintained, with both the Italian and French influences strongly evident and finely balanced. Corsica is financially very dependent on France but they are a proudly independent people and no doubt are determined to stay that way.
At 05:30 on 26 August we departed our anchorage, just as the first light of dawn was visible. We have been researching the descriptions of dawn to determine how early we could leave, with enough light to assist our departure. There is an astronomical dawn (when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon) a nautical dawn (when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon) and a civil dawn (when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon).
We had a beautiful sunrise, very calm seas and very little wind, the most wind at 7 knots being in the first couple of hours. We had a brief visitation by some dolphins and multiple visitations from dragonflies! It took us 12 hours to cover the distance, anchoring under Capo Berta, off the township of Diano around 17:30. The church bells were ringing and there is no mistaking that Trilogy was in Italian waters once more.