Corsica
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Sun 6 Aug 2006 12:48
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Dear Friends
Well, our plans to explore south were put
back a week. We headed out last Monday but the wind very quickly got up so
we decided to turn the other way and head back to the sheltered bays near St
Florent (you need your atlases here). It turned out that was a wise decision as
the forecast the following morning was force 8 and 9, so we tucked in to an even
more sheltered corner where we spent most of the week quite comfortably. It just
goes to show that you can't make plans too precisely when sailing.
Here's a couple of pics of the original
"Martello" tower - or what's left of it - next to our anchorage.
 This is in fact the MOrtellA tower, built by
the Genoese around 1520 for defence against pirates. In February 1794 Britain
came to the aid of Pascal Paoli to help eject the Genoese (the fleet included
Horatio Nelson commanding the Agamemnon). The towns were easily taken
but this tower was very resistent. The British were so impressed with the design
of the tower that they built many along the south coast of England to protect
against an invasion of the British south coast by Napoleon (who was born in
Corsica...).
 We had some entertainment watching other
boats drag their anchors in the gale. We are used to the English Channel and
using plenty of anchor chain (we have 80m of chain plus 80m of warp), but the
boats here are used to the Med, they let the anchor touch the bottom and reckon
the job is done. Not surprisingly, lots of boats dragged and one motor boat was
a mile out (with people sunbathing on the foredeck) before they noticed that the
coast was getting further away.
The winds here are quite strange, though
last week's gales were a result of a weather system in the western Med, there
are funny local winds too. Last night early evening, there was calm, then in the
space of only two minutes it was blowing 20 knots from the wrong direction and
half an hour later it was all over - calm again. Be prepared is, I think the
motto.
We're enjoying "just messing about in boats"
and we've done quite a few of our chores in between naps. Next task is to
commission the watermaker which is now all ready to go. See next week's exciting
report !
We hope you are all enjoying the Summer back
home.
Best Wishes
George and Michael
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