Golfe de Saint Florent, via Macinaggio
Altea
Fri 15 Aug 2014 12:01
30 July 2014
We wake to a pridigious downpour. The sea is flattened by the rain, as it comes down in bucket loads. The boat gets a thorough freshwater wash, and we spend a few minutes wondering how we could collect some. It seems such a waste. One day we will rig something for emergencies.
Today we are heading round the 5 or 6 mile wide finger of mountains that forms Cap Corse, at the extreme northern end of the island. We get away at 11:30. As we sail along in rising winds we pick up a near gale warning on the VHF - another force 7 from the west. The wind increases and by the time we reach Maccinagio, the last refuge on the eastern shore before the cape, the winds are hitting 25 knots again. Boats are coming round the headland with reefed sails and crew in foul weather gear.
It is time to take stock, and we pull in to anchor.
The decision is made to go, and we rig our heavy weather sail plan of staysail and running backstays (these are extra supporting wires that we can take back to the aft quarters to counterbalance the staysail and stabilise the mast in bigger seas) together with a reefed main. Life jackets on, and away we go. The sea state is fairly bumpy, but no worse than Bonifacio, and although there is a swell running, pushed by westerlies that have been blowing in the gulf of lions for several days now, it is not a problem. We want to be sure of reaching Saint Florent in the light, so furl the genoa and motor for the section that is into the teeth of the wind, which saves us an hour or two, and then as soon as we can see round the point, it is engine off for a blow down the western side of the "finger". The swell is big here, and we stay well away from the lee shore, always conscious that any sort of equipment or engine failure here could lead to a very dangerous slide down wind onto the rocks. It is always best to have some sea room.
Everyone takes a turn at the helm in these more challenging seas. We have slight issue with the genoa furler which seems to have gone off duty. In the end we conclude that it was just slightly overpowered, and it works fine as we approach Saint Florent, which looks beautiful in the evening sunshine. We were slightly worried that the anchorage would be full, with the high winds having trapped people for a few days, but the bay is wide and there is plenty of room and we drop anchor at 19:30.