Cruising progress 2016 (Click to enlarge)
31st August 2016
After leaving Golfe de Juan marina, we headed back along the coast and spent a few more days in Villefranche and Beaulieu sur Mer, depending on the wind direction. We had moved round to Beaulieu sur Mer, to shelter from a forecast very strong westerly, which never materialised overnight. By mid-afternoon the following day a light onshore breeze got up and as it started to increase slightly we decided to move back to Villefranche. Just as we were closing hatches and getting ready, the wind suddenly increased to 35kts, the sea became a cauldron of onshore breaking waves and the anchor started to drag as we were blown sideways. We managed to get some control back and get the anchor raised in very difficult circumstances. We both got soaked with water breaking over the boat as the wind increased to 40kts. It was pretty chaotic as everyone was trying to leave the bay, even the very large 150 - 200 foot motor yachts, but after a short downwind dash to the next bay we were back in sheltered waters and managed to find a spot to anchor along with the other new arrivals.
We had intended leaving the next day but as we were getting ready I discovered that some of the stitching on the sprayhood windows had rotted and needed an immediate repair. What looked like a fairly simple job, ended up taking four hours to complete, as we kept finding more and more bits that needed to be re-sewn. Hopefully that will be all that's required until the end of the season.
Finally we were ready to set off for Italy with a weather forecast of around 6kts of wind and so it was for about an hour. Then it switched to being on the nose and was gusting 30kts with fairly big seas. When we finally arrived at San Remo it was too windy to attempt to enter the harbour, so we anchored in the only bit of shelter we could find, which wasn't much! Once the wind died down a bit we managed to get into the harbour and tied up at the town quay along with a couple of other boats. It wasn't the most salubrious of areas in the midst of the fishing boats, complete with a huge resident rat, which seemed perfectly happy to saunter around in broad daylight and hopped up the steps to the breakwater. Needless to say all the windows and hatches were closed that night - thank goodness it wasn't too hot a night.
The following morning we had a 6:00am start for our sail to Corsica, except we had to motor for 13.75 hours in little or no wind. Where does it go when you want it! We spent two nights in different anchorages without getting off the boat and then headed across to Elba, which we intended to circumnavigate before returning to Corsica.
Elba is a beautiful mountainous island, very green with numerous harbours, attractive towns and sheltered anchorages, most of which we have visited. Portoferraio is the capital of the island and is where Napoleon lived when he was exiled from France and during his time there he constructed roads and modernised the town. We visited Villa Mulini where he lived, which was very interesting, but fairly basic for someone of his standing. The old town is lovely and is much bigger than it looks from the water. The bay is quite large with ferries arriving and departing continuously, which can make it a bit rolly, but we did have the added advantage of being able to get wi-fi from several of the ferries, albeit fairly slow and for short periods only, but we weren't complaining.
After two really enjoyable weeks it was time to head back to Corsica, but not before we were visited by the local Carabiniere (police), who came alongside the boat and wanted to check our papers were in order. They produced a fishing net into which the documents were deposited and then moved away to inspect them. After a lot of discussion they concluded that the outboard engine's serial number was missing from our insurance documents, which they refused to return so that we could point out where the information was. I eventually looked it up on the laptop and told them were to find the information and we also passed them the manual which had the serial number written on it. All he relevant serial numbers were in fact present on the Italian language version which we had given them and eventually they departed looking rather disgruntled. The next day we discovered they had done exactly the same to another British boat but this time had handed them a form threatening a €100 fine if they didn't produce the required information and also retained their documents pending receipt. This was the first time for two or three years that our papers had been checked and give me the Spanish authorities anyway!
Back on Corsica we headed up and round the northern tip and then slowly made our way down along the west coast. We've had a few good sails, but mostly motoring with either no wind or it's on the nose. We spent a couple of nights in St Florent, where we sat and watched four seaplanes swooping down into the bay to fill up their water tanks while trying to put out a fire on the hillside. It was several hours before they had it under control. Another first we've seen this year is a flying dinghy which took paying customers for a flight around the bay. I'm not too sure I would feel particularly safe in it. Mike says he now wants to upgrade our dinghy! From there we continued on to L'Ile-Rousse and were shouted at by a mad Corsican for anchoring too close to him. However he didn't play favourites as he did exactly the same to all the other boats which came in, regardless of how close they anchored. We're now anchored in a bay directly opposite Ajaccio (the island's capital) about three miles away, with some very unforgiving rocks ahead of us. There are two wrecked yachts which we had a look at, one on its side on the beach and a much bigger one wedged between the rocks. Being here in a storm would appear not to be a good idea. We've anchored in some lovely bays, but the towns we've visited so far have been a bit disappointing. Corsica doesn't seem to feel very Mediterranean, which is a bit strange, but we're enjoying our time here all the same.
