At dinner the previous night we met Mal & Liam a Danish and Kiwi repectively.
They were headed to Corsica and Sardinia and were keen to know of any places we would recommend so we went back to their boat for a night cap. Liam had been a professional organ musucian and wine grower. Mel was an engineer . They had had a lovely brand new Benneteau 38 called “Bail”.This was apparently so they could say they were “Out on Bail”

We had agreed to head for an anchorage round the NE corner of Elba and meet up, but both of us thought better of it when we saw it.

Heading on towards Porto Azzuro we  had anchored in a bay just East and Liam phoned to advise they were one bay over! C’ est la vie. I managed to send them details of our trip from Cagliari and our favourite bits by e-mail and we will keep in touch no doubt on messenger as they too will eventually head for Greece.

Leaving Condotta Bay anchorage in the morning heading for Isola Giglio
 
Bimini for light winds only !

Isola Giglio is where the Costa Cocordia went aground on an unauthorised close by pass of Porto Giglio. She hit the rocks and tore a gash in her port side and eventually had to abandon ship with the loss of 32 lives. If you read the story it’s appalling .

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16563562

  
The approach                                                       Could only be my bar !

The town is very nice and totally geared to tourism that the disaster mst have affected.

Salvage cranes and the busy wee harbour and a friend who dropped in for a snack
 
Kids rowing a boat in the harbour under the watchful eye of their big brother , not an iPad or mobile in sight !
 
Camira smallest as usual !

Monday saw us having a massive passage of 1.7 miles across to Portoferraio.

It was founded by Cosimo de Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany in 1548 and the name of the harbour we berthed in, under colourful high sided buildings with washing hanging out as per Italia, bears his name.

  
The harbour side

 
This tower is now a museum, but was a prison in the past, annarchist Giovanni Passannante was imprisoned and tortured for attempting to kill King Umberto 1.

  
There are three forts and a massive line of walls all still visible today.
In the 19th century  it expanded to exploit the export produce of the new iron mills in Rio Marina and hence earned the name “Iron Port “ in Italian.

Napoleon had a house here for a period but was furnished sparsely as if he had no intention of staying long.

 
After a walk to the local beach we booked a recommended seafood reataurant for that evening.
We had a lovely meal that night and met Liam & Mal

Dressed to kill and eat

Sunday saw us having a leisurely day sail around the cape to Portoferraio bay for a look for another suitable anchorage for the night.

  

There are prohibited areas within the bay due presumeably to the large amount of ferry traffic.

We originally looked at an anchorage suggested by the pilot book – but didn’t fancy it.

   

We again took the chance of anchoring in weed , which is not as good holding as sand, near a lovely little hotel on the other side of the bay.

Well we did decide on the longer passage direct to Elba after rounding Cap Corse instead of heading South to Maccinagio.

 
Franc & Annie getting their boat prepared for leaving the next day, they are headed back the way we came to Calvi.

The patient fisherman who sat all day at the back of us, with no luck as far as we could see.  He eventually had to move when two more Italian boats arrived.

  
We were teated to a fantastic sunset in St Florent the previous evening.

 
It’s not often you get pictures of your own boat on the move these are courtesy of Franc as we left St Florent.

We headed alnost due North up Cap Corse in very light wind ,after the onslaught of the previous few days, although it did mean motoring a bit. The Cap is very Scottish Island like but with the sun of “Corse”.

 
Capo Grosso opening up and Ile de la Giraglia beginning to show to the North . We will pass between it and the mainland.

 
A very Scottish scene , no ?                              Ile de la Giraglia passage

 
Bye Bye Corsica, new courteousy flag up , and hello Elba.Now at least motor sailing with main.
Elba 5 hours away across the Corsican channel under cloud in the distance.

Pretty boat for a stink boat going the other way. These are the boats the marinas are waiting for coming from the South coast of France and Northern Italy.

We managed a limited amount of sailing that day and eventually closed with Marciana marina, our original destination if the weather wasn’t too good.
However we decided to push on a wee bit to a promising bay in the hope of anchoring for the night.

 
Closing with Elba                                             Marciana marina in distance

Marciana Marina closer

 
Baie di Procchio our anchorage for the night .

Anchored at the 2nd attempt and went in swimming to discover Rocna anchor not fully dug in ! Sacre Bleu !
We let more chain out & reversed, but still only partially dug in, light wind forecast so should be ok with weight of chain.

Fajitas for tea. That’s us back in Italy though longish day.

Frank and Annie kindly offered us a loan of their bikes and pointed out a couple of routes we might like to try.
One was around the bay to see a boat that had floundered on the rocks and the other to a hilltop village called Olletto.
What they forgot to tell us they did them on separate days with a rest day in between !

The trip round the bay


                                                                                          Thats St Florent in the distance

Followed by a return to St Florent then a  14 mile return trip 7 miles relentless hill climb to a height of 1007 ft.

   
The town nestling in the hills is St Florent the one in the second is the hill climb. We made a couple of off track excursions to find an open Cave de Degustation to sample some wine direct from the vineyards but they were closed , boo !

However we did have some back on the boat later with Frank & Annie

That will probably be all from St Florent we hope to move on just as soon as weather permits more than likely this coming Saturday when we will round Cap Corse to Maccinagio or perhaps carry straight on to Elba. 

Our options today 28th May where to head for Port D’ Ile Rousse for the night before going on St Florent to wait out the expected bad weather front.
Even though we were both tired we decided to pass Ile Rousse and head on to find an anchorage not too far from St Florent  that would allows us time to get in on Sunday before what looked like an advancing front.
We originally tried Plage deSaleccia in the Anse de Faggiola but it was far too exposed so carried on to Plage du Lotto.
When we got there two further boats where anchored but left about 19:00 oooh err !
It was a wee bit rolly but the good old Rocna anchor held.
The water was beautifully clear and we were buzzed by a micro light with a dinghy attached.
We found out later in St Florent it was 120 euros per person per trip
  
Early next morning we motored the 3 miles up and into St Florent only to find Frank & Annie our French friends from Cagliari berthed two boats down.
 
Dinner that night was in the wee Bistro Vista , very nice.

The town again as you would expect is very French though the Corsicans might not like that particular thought.
 
 
All very picturesque and of course Petanc
 
It is pretty apt that since we were waiting out winds around cape corse of F8 lessening, the local priest came out on a boat and went around the harbour sprinkling holy water on all the boats.
 

Gordon rather cheekily has headed up his pictures on the PC as “Ministry followed by Moules” as that is what he had for his tea that particular night.

He is going to the bad fire even though he has been sprinkled !

This section is certainly the most impressive of the whole island as it is extremely rugged, mountainous and, in places, of awe-inspiring beauty. It is however a dangerous coast in bad weather there are virtually no harbours of refuge. With the exception of Calvi & Cargese and a few villages the land is virtually deserted.

Girolata entrance and moorings just around from our cala.
  
The coast consists of red rocky cliffs and steep sided bays and gulfs.
  
Louise thought the picture below looks like a bear
 
The battle of Calvi is where the then Captain Nelson lost his eye , having been struck by a piece of granite during an opposed landing .

In the next picture below the lowest piece of land you can see (middle right) is the bay Port Agro where Nelson landed his guns from HMS Agamemnon and hauled them over the hill to bombard Calvi .

The following pictures are rounding the cape with the citadel opening up in the distance

   
We were led to a  berth in the Port de Peche right under the citadel.
At first site we were a wee bit dubious but we were tired and as we were already moored up, and it was an impressive situation, we  just stayed put.

Big, big mistake !

We were also 200ft from Bar Le Tour, where from 20:00 to 24:00 three incredibly bad French singers performed, followed by music from the bar until 02:00 followed by night club music until 04:00.

 
Oh……. and then just as peace descended, the Corsican ferry berthed at the back of us in a maelstrom of wash & noise at 06:30.    lol

It was a very pretty and an obviously historically interesting town, bit it was an early quick escape from us unfortunately.

The next couple of nights 25th & 26th May were spent at anchor, firstly in Baie de Sagone, having braved the Passe de Sanguinaires between Pt de la Pareta & Ile de Porri. It is 200m long by 200m wide with a minimum depth of 2.8m.
We managed to sort the creasing out in the Genoa.
 
The landscape not altogether unlike the West coast islands of Scotland. The 1st night we spent anchored in a clear sandy bay with two other French yachts for company.
The rocks around here are beginning to show their characteristic redness.
 
The next day we were headed for Girolata. A beautiful setting and the only place that gives proper shelter between Calvi & Ajaccio, however we did not intend going into the moorings but rather a smaller cala just South of Girolatta called Cala Di Tuara.
It was beautiful and very peaceful with only some cows on the beach and an inquisitive young seagull for company.
  
A swim , a shower and unfair wine portions followed
 

Our friends Otti and Rosi from Cagliari told us about the small train which crosses the interior of the island through the mountains to Bastia. Jokingly called the TGV or Train of Great Vibrations. We did the round trip of seven hours, broken by two hours in Bastia, a long day but so so worth it.
The interior of the island is wild and densely forested, very popular for climbing and hiking. The islands highest mountain is Monte Cinto at 8,877 ft., seemingly you can ski here in the winter, must bear that in mind. In the centre of the island is Corte, the spiritual capital of the island, the Citadel here became the symbol of the islanders’ struggle for independence, which many of the islanders still want and is the cause of most of the troubles here.   Unfortunately, the photos taken from a moving train don’t do it justice, it was stunningly beautiful.

 
Corte station & Corte in the distance
 
 
The goats have to scamper off the one track system to avoid being a kebab
 
All of the old stations were built in the same fashion
  
Arriving at downtown Bastia for a quick two hours look around.
  
While we were here we walked along to investigate Port Toga ,one of the Bastia marinas.
We thought we might leave Corsica bound for Elba from Bastia. We have decided though just to cross from further North from Macinaggio, so this is our one & only brief tour of Bastia.
Unfortunately it clouded over on the way back so the mountain pictures are a bit obscured.
 
Finally arrival back at Ajaccio at about 20:00.

It was great to see the interior of the island , though Gordon’s coccyx is aching after 7 hours sitting. He thinks he must’ve  banged it on a winch or something! lol.

We seem to be in rather more typical Mediteranean weather now….all or nothing which is what we expected really. It would just be nice to have something in between a wee bit more often. The prevailing winds here are North, North West so we are straight into it a lot of the time and when the Mistral blows, it blows! On the plus side, the West coast of Corsica is far more interesting with more places to see.

So far we are not disapointed, it is lovely, very green, mountainous and very remote, only a very small percentage of the island is inhabited, the population is 320,000 and most of them are in Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica and Bastia.

Incidentally, Corsica has the highest crime and murder rate in Western Europe, including the inner-city streets of Naples or London. Hard to believe such a beautiful Island, nicknamed the “Isle of Beauty” is plagued by violent crime committted by organised gangsters heavily engaged in protection rackets and Corsican seperatist activities.

Anyway, back to the Corsica we see .

An early start from Porto Pollo.

Approching Ajaccio

  

We arrived in Ajaccio on a Sunday and the Capitainerie of the marina we went to is closed on Sunday’s so it’s a free for all as to which berth you take. After circling unsucessfuly for about a half hour looking we were helpfully directed to a small space which we were advised was free – but you’ve guesssed – it turned out to be someone elses. On their return later that day we had to up sticks and move. Gordon nicknamed the woman Madame Defarge  as she was beside herself shouting C’est ma place ! , C’est ma place !,  says he could see her sitiing knitting at the guillotine. Thankfully her husband was more understanding ,lol.

Marina and bike park, brilliant

 

The marina itself, Charles Arnano was nothing great, showers & facilities were shut so we transferred the following morning to the old port  marina, Tino Rossi which was closer to the town and handier for everything.

  

The town has a bit of a buzz to it, lots of restaurants and bars, a beach and lots of statues and monuments of Napoleon Bonopart, you wouldn’t forget he was born here, that’s for sure. We had to go and have a look at the house where he was born in 1769 and lived with his family until they were all expelled by Pascal Paoli. The Maison Bonopart is now a museum displaying family heirlooms.

 

The streets and buildings are very picturesque ,older parts

 

and more modern

 

The Feche museum created by one of Napolian’s uncles, and one of its exhibits.