Bastia
Altea
Fri 15 Aug 2014 12:01
28 July 2014
We left at dawn. The sun rose over the sea as we motored in the early morning calm. After breakfast, we headed back inshore to try to pick up the sea breeze, created by the warm air rising over the impressive mountains, set back from the coast beyond the flood plains of several of Corsica's rivers.
We had a long generator and watermaker run, making 125 litres an hour, some of which went straight into the washing machine. The clothes were then hung out to dry on a line draped around the rigging. We looked like a tramp steamer. It was time to rig the spinnaker pole and return to being a sailing boat.
S and I wrestled with the pole for a while, getting used to its ways. It lives with its heel raised up on a track up the front of the mast. This is hoisted on a white rope, which runs through a clutch on the mast, so it can be locked off. The toe of the pole, which will end up being the outboard end, starts life fastened to the deck just in front of the mast. We attach a red rope to this end, which is also arranged so that it can be hoisted up the mast. So, the sequence is - tension on the red and down a bit on the white, and the toe begins to move away from the mast, suspended from the red. Then up on the red to create a bit more room. Down with the white and up a bit on the red, etc etc, until the pole is horizontal - the heel fixed to the mast and the toe free to swing in an arc from the genoa sail at the front, back round to the shrouds that hold up the mast. The genoa sheet is then fed through the end of the pole, but not fastened to it, so as the pole is swung out this acts as the new fairlead for the sheet. The pole is then fixed fore and aft, with a rope through the forward cleat and another to the central cleat. These also stop the pole being lifted up by the sail in a gust. Eventually the sail is unfurled and bingo, a poled out genoa. The benefit is that in lighter airs heading down wind, particularly in a swell, it does not collapse as the boat rolls. The mainsail can then be held out on the other side with a gybe preventer (another rope passing through the forward cleat on the other side) and you can sail goose winged.
Forgive the long explanation, but we were very pleased with ourselves when it was up and running and it served us very well for the run down wind for the rest of the day. We kept pace with a boat flying a spinnaker, and arrived at Bastia earlier than expected at 17:45.
The pilot book had warned of Bastia's faded elegance, and we anchored under the lee of 5 and 6 storey tenement blocks, across a busy road, but if we looked the other way, we had a lovely view of the old church and the town's fortifications.
There was quite a swell and as it was getting late we stayed aboard and had a rolly, but pleasant evening playing cards.