Where we are joined by Dan and Cristi, and Kelly deliberately takes a bad photo of me 🤨

A couple of bottles of wine then we’re on the (wind-up elastic bands, ATR-72) plane to Figari, Corsica...

...where we - Carol and Terence - find that our bags didn’t make it.

🤬

Ho-hum. We ask them to keep the luggage at the airport when they finally do arrive and we can tell them where we are going to be.

It’s off to Propriano in a van. About a fifty minute journey, where we find out a number of great historical facts about the culture and history of Corsica. In particular, that they have a local beer called “Pietra”.

We arrive at Propriano, a much bigger town than at least I expected, with a large number of restaurants lining the port side road (Avenue de Napoleon, of course). Each of these restaurants is set into old buildings on the south side of the road, with a patio/gazebo-like extension on the north side.

We’re dropped off at the port, which is the standard fare marina. Though there is a large car ferry looming in the background.

Check-in at the charter firm - Kiriacoulis - is interesting to say the least. There are a number of unexpected charges - insurance excess insurance (yes, that is a thing); linens; flippers; and so on. Looks like there was a miscommunication with Scott at Proteus. Looking at the contract it appears that these were to be paid for at the base, and that we hadn’t prepaid for them. Ho-hum.

Luckily, the woman checking us in is very nice and the franchise owner is pretty much a caricature of what you might imagine a Corsican yacht charter franchise owner might be.

On to the condominium boat - it’s enormous. There’s a minimal briefing: don’t hit any rocks, don’t use the watermaker, don’t use the generator, etc..

We go out and hit the restaurants, trying to find one that will take seven people without a reservation - SOOL.

Finally, at the opposite end of the town from the boat, we find a restaurant that can take us. It’s a pretty nice meal starting with a round of red Cap Corse. Generally agreed to be lovely.

And so to bed...

As always, the pilot/cruising book is invaluable in alerting us to a number of dangers as we come into the anse. A reef, offshore rocks, submerged rocks in the middle of the anchorage all make it a nervous entry for our first night.

We finally anchor nicely between a Lagoon 420 and a rather nice large cruising \240trimaran and shut down the engines.

Our two neighbors soon leave and are presently replaced by three monohulls, one of which anchors concernedly close.

Everyone jumps in the water apart from Dan and me (I’m missing a swimsuit, Dan missing the impetus :-).

Jerry cooks a great penne bolognaise type thing.

Anchor watch is set with Dan at midnight, me at three, and Carol at six.

The entrance to the calanque that leads to Bonifacio is almost hidden, but the town was visible at the top of the cliffs and we could spy the lighthouse guarding the North-Western entrance to the passage.

The route down the calanque was fairly wide, but with large amounts of traffic, sometimes large themselves, it was concerning. However, the views of the city at the top of the cliff, and of the port as we emerged around the corners, were something that can not be forgotten.

But just in case, here’s a video:

Docking at Pier Mike was fraught, the language barrier led us to misunderstand the harbour master: so that when he asked us to dock as a side-tie at the end of Pier Mike, we stupidly docked as a side-tie at the end of Pier Mike, parallel to the pier. Boy, did we feel stupid.

Turns out he meant us to dock as a side-tie at the end of Pier Mike, perpendicular to the pier - to form a T.

With some help from shore and some expert toing and froing from Jerry at the helm, we were finally safely alongside.

First point of order for Carol and myself was to get ourselves to the Capitainerie to see if our luggage had been delivered....Success! Clothes! Deodorant! Underwear! But a long walk back to the boat with a 50lb pack on my back. Then off to find a chandlers to find a replacement U shackle.

What a town! The citadel above looking down on the harbor like a stern father.

The street running along the side of the harbour is full of restaurants, many of them with covered patios across the street from the restaurant proper. Lunch was the first point of order at a nice restaurant named Factory. I turned up late, but luckily Kelly had only wanted half of her burger - I think I virtually inhaled the other half.

And so, on to the Citadel.

Walking up the steep path to the citadel we could look back at the harbor and see Lady Belinda along with the other boats - including the Hampshire, the large super yacht in the background.

Reaching the top of the path, we could see out over the other side of the peninsula with some great rock formations.

Walking through the gates of the citadel, we started walking around the upper town - some of us to oooh and aaaah at the architecture and shops, some of us to find a bar. Which we did, and were introduced to the wonders of Pietra, the local beer. The steep walk up may have had a significant impact on our opinion of the beer. The waiter tells us that cost of two rounds for seven people is €15 and we all leap to pay. Unfortunately, he got his fifteen and fifty mixed up - makes a bit more sense.

Dinner that evening was at another restaurant along the marina wall - a little further on from Factory (our lunch place) - L’Escale. A nice dinner and back to the Lady Belinda.

A few drinks and most people were in bed before midnight.

And now we come to the Story of Dan.

The boat next to us, a 45’ monohull, had a group of five or six chaps all living in Prague but from all over the world. Dan started cheating to them and climbed across to their boat to have a few drinks. As ever, all good things come to pass, and the beer runs out.

“We’ve got some!” Dan pipes up.

“Do you have anything stronger?” chorus the Praguers.

“Well, we have some whiskey, but my crew mates will kill me if I just give it away. It’s almost half-a-bottle.” Dan replies.

“We’ll give you €50!” They say, excitedly.

“Okay then!”

Cristi is woken at four in the morning by Dan saying “cómo estás” and passing out 🤪. She gets up and finds the \240entire boat open, electronics left out, all the lights on. 😱

😂

It’s a grey overcast day and the wind is in our teeth as we motor around the southern end of Corsica. We decide to go south of Ile Lavezzi as the short cuts (never take short cuts!) are recommended in only clear weather with experience spotters - no thank-you.

We had intended to stop for lunch at a beach named Santa Giulia, but heading into a fairly strong wind, sand with the enormous freeboard on the Lagoon 450, our speed has been reduced to about 5 knots, meaning it’s going to take us about six hours to get to Porto Vecchio. So it’s a straight, wiggly, course to Porto-Vecchio with no stops 🤨.

We arrive at the marina at about 4pm and hang around outside as the marina authorities try to organize a berth for us. Finally called to come in on the VHF, and we med-moor - using lazy lines - in the marina.

Remember: When using lazy-lines “Pull from the sea!”

Unfortunately, as we were maneuvering the boat into the nortmost two berths that the marina chap wanted us to be in, Jerry’s knee caught the controls of the hydraulic passerelle, and, we later determined, seemed to permanently depress the “down” button - so we couldn’t raise the passerelle. After a lot of work, we were finally able to get it in the “up” position by using the secondary halyard and then lashing it to a cleat - but not before I had managed to drop a nut-and-bolt into the water. Told you it was to become a trend.

This is Dan preparing to leap into action to help us dock in Porto-Vecchio, which can be seen in the background.

There’s intermittent rain, but Carol decides to go up to the old town - which she says is lovely. Unfortunately, everyone else is knackered from the 6 hour journey and stay on the boat. It’s a pity we didn’t make it up there, as, from the photos Carol took (below) it looks like it would have definitely been worth it.

You can see the Lady Belinda on the left hand side of the photo, the catamaran slightly to the right of the marina entrance.

We decided to walk along the harbour-side restaurants that evening to find dinner. We opted for the Casa Corsa restaurant - mainly down to it being the only one that could sit all seven of us. Traditional Corsican food, with, of course, dry rose wine - cannelloni, veal, large Corsican salads with goat cheese and ham. Far too much was ordered for us to finish.

Easy-peasy leave from the marina for Jerry, and then, after we were out of the Porto-Vecchio bay, it was jib up for some extended motor sailing down to Golfe de Sant’Amanza.

Anchoring in the bay would have been easy, apart from the fact that, yet again, I dropped the pin for the U shackle through the net as we were anchoring. I stared at the hole through which it fell for at least ten seconds, berating myself, and also thinking how to exactly explain this to everyone.

Our first thought was to cut a line and use that to attach the bridle to the rode - but it just didn’t feel great.

Luckily, we then realized that there must be somewhere else on the boat that uses U shackles, an that they might be able to be repurposed. The secondary halyard! Not used for anything as we don’t have any dedicated downwind sails - perfect! And it fits! Phew!

A little time to relax, and finally get out Red - the Angry Bird:

(okay, drone).

After playing around with the drone, and the others going on an abortive dinghy excursion to Cala Di Stentinu, it was all to shore to enjoy the delights of the Maora Beach Club. Great cocktails, relaxing comfy seats, a beautiful view out over the bay - what more could one ask for? Apart from more drinks and a dedicated driver to take us all back on the dinghy.

But, all good things come to an end, and we had to pour ourselves into the dinghy and get back to the Lady. Where Carol cooked uss lovely deconstructed middle eastern kebabs with Pita bread, hummus, and tsatsiki. Delicious.

The evening was spent, as ever, in good conversation, staring at the stars, and avoiding playing games (the latter only applies to one curmudgeon on the boat).

Of course the annoying thing about Red is that in every single photograph I have my head down staring at the controls. Ho-hum.

Today we were sailing from the Golfe de Sant’Amanza to the Cala Di Furnellu, around the southern tip of Corsica, and beyond Bonifacio.

The wind was vaguely in our favor, and we started off with some jib up motor-sailing until we rounded Ile de Lavazzi, where we decided to put up the main. Point to note when putting up the main with the jib already up, keep some speed up on the boat so that you have some control over the heading, putting it into the wind with the engine simply at idle it is almost impossible to control. Once I realized this, the main was up quickly, and we were motor off and sailing properly.

The wind was a nice 14-16 knots on a beam reach and we were quickly up to 7 knots of boat speed. As the wind increased to 18-20 knots we put in a reef and were now sailing at about 9 knots of boat speed - up to a maximum of about 9.5 knots.

As the wind started to get put to 23-24 knots we went to put in the second reef, only to find out it wasn’t attached to its clew in the leech of the mainsail. Unfortunately that meant we had to lower the sail as we were passing Bonifacio, as the wind was really too strong for only a single reef in the main. We carried on with the jib up and reefed and the engine going.

As we were coming up to Cap de Feno, I passed the helm over to Jerry so that I could go to the head. Immediately I went into the salon, I could hear a lot of activity above, but just shrugged as I went downstairs. Returning to the bridge I find that the jib has been furled. Apparently, as soon as I went below and we rounded Cap de Feno, the wind swung 180 degrees, but kept the same speed - meaning that we were now heading straight into it with the jib up.

😝 Hee, hee.

A nice gentle motor from there to Cala Di Furnellu, where we were disappointed to find that the main bay was cordoned off with a line of buoys, and the peninsula only offered limited protection from the north winds. A quick discussion and we decided to change destinations and head for Roccapina, our anchorage from the first night, again.

A lot less nervous coming in this time as we knew the dangers and were familiar with the anchorage. A few more boats than before, but we found a suitable spot to anchor and went to drop the anchor.

Nothing.

No response from the windlass - just a click.

So we spent the next hour trolling around the anchorage as we tried to fix the windlass.

It turns out that in the morning the anchor was brought up so tight on the windlass, and probably in exactly the wrong spot, that the windlass was unable to let it out again.

We tried everything, taking apart what we could of the windlass; attempting to take the anchor off the rode; cursing. Finally, Dan was able to use a short metal rod inserted between the rode and the windlass and then by hitting it with the hammer, was able to get the rode off the windlass. After that everything worked fine.

Yay! For Dan! All is forgiven, you can drink whiskey again.

The bay was very calm, so it was time for some more Red fun

We all go swimming and ... at last! We finally see some fish in the Med!

As it was Wednesday, and Wednesday begins with a “W”, dinner that night was Tacos! Lovingly prepared by Cristi and Dan and scoffed down with much enjoyment by everybody.

And then one of the bay in the morning sun:

Then we were off to Propriano with a stop at Tizzano for lunch.

Tizzano was lovely, we anchored outside the breakwater at about 11:15 and motored in on the dinghy to a small marina. We were able to book a table at the restaurant - Chez Antoine - for noon, and in the meantime went down to their bar just above the beach for some cocktails.

At the bar they only had enough mix left to make one of the Ti Punches, which I ended up with, as other people chose other drinks. Omigod! Worst decision of my life - it was disgusting. Like some incredibly sour ditchwater that had been distilled into the essence of a Republican politician’s soul.

Lunch upstairs was delightful, with, of course, 3 bottles of rose and some incredible food.

And then it was back to the boat, weigh anchor, and our last sail of the trip, back to the home port of Propriano.

Where, of course, we found that there were no English speakers in the Harbour Office and so we came into the fuel dock unannounced, but nicely executed with some help from the on-site manager. I went over to where we had been berthed at the start of the trip and found that it was open, and so waited there for Jerry to bring The Lady in and we had a final, by now perfect, med-moor to end our sailing.

Our final dinner of the trip was back on Avenue de Napoleon, at Chez Perenti et Fils, a nice, if unremarkable, place.

That evening, there was a concerted effort to finish off all of our gin and wine, which we made a valiant effort at, but ultimately failed.

And so we reach the end of our trip. All-in-all Corsica was great: fine food; fine wine; French people being, you know, a bit French; Corsicans saying they’re not French; and, of course, lessons learned:

1. Bonifacio was amazing - bucket list item
2. Chez Antoine was the best meal of the trip
3. Rose all day every person. Budget 2 bottles per person per day
4. Don’t let Dan sell the whisky (or buy more whisky)
5. 3 day anchoring in 6 day charter is perfect
6. We never had beignets or crepes - always leave something for next time
7. Come back to Corsica to head north
8. Red not white Cap du Corse
9. Any rose in Corsica is good even boxed wine
10. Don’t let Terence handle anything not tethered to the boat
11. Bring spare anchor pins!
12. Don’t cinch the anchor too tight but we used all the tools. Thanks Dan!
13. Double check oars and gas in dinghy
14. Don’t order the Ti-Punch - it punches you back
15. Don’t order daiquiris in an Irish Bar
16. There is always an Irish Bar
17. Do order an Irish coffee
18. There is always a naked German
19. When spying on naked German - don’t get caught
20. There can be too much tonic
21. Oh Fuck Bottle not needed!
22. We saw a meteor shower - wow
23. Don’t jump for the middle step in the rain
24. Heimlich maneuver almost required
25. Raise sails in dock before leaving and check rigging
26. Drones and go pros are great
27. Don’t let Dan buy the coffee
28. Don’t forget to pack your Tumi cups!
29. Always buy 3 cups of pringles
30. Always close up if the last person to bed and leave key inside the boat!
31. Bring headlamps on dinghy
32. More cheese
33. We provision like rock stars
34. Block ice works best.
35. Slushy rose is awesome
36. We still need to learn 3 songs
37. Learn marina instructions in target language