Elba, Corsica and Menorca – News and Photos

 

Somehow over a month seems to have passed since the last blog from Port de Taverna half way up the east coast of Corsica. No excuses apart from extreme business in the form of swimming and relaxing.

 

We left Port de Taverna on Wednesday 17^th June and, with the wind in the NNW, the obvious destination was Elba only just over 40 miles away. Somehow we hadn’t previously thought about Elba – it wasn’t on our paper charts – but once in Corsica it was clear that we had to pay a visit.

 

Anchoring in the Golfe de Lacona on the south coast, we started to take stock of the island. Very different from Corsica. Hilly rather than mountainous, green trees everywhere. Italian rather than French beaches -  groups of tightly packed beach loungers and parasols, crowds of bikini clad sun-worshippers but empty beach in between. 

 

 

Our next stop was Porto Azzuro, the second town of Elba. High above the harbour is the 16^th century fortress, built by the Spaniards, and later becoming the prison. The name of Fort Longone became associated with criminals and Mafiosi and so the town changed its name from Longone to Porto Azzuro to become more tourist friendly. We walked up the steep hill to the fortress but it is still a prison and we were turned away!

 

 

Iron ore was being mined in Elba since the 6^th century BC and the last mine only closed 30 years ago. Much of the east coast is scarred by the mine workings.

 

 

We spent a couple of peaceful nights anchored in the bay of Viticcio on the north coast. Up in the NE corner there was shelter from all but the NW wind.

 

 

Portoferraio, the island capital where we spent two nights, is an absolute gem. The harbour is surrounded by 18^th century houses overshadowed by the towering 16^th century citadel.

 

 

It was a long, stiff walk up to the citadel but worth it for the sight of the fortifications and the views out to sea.

 

On Tuesday 23rs June we decided it was time to return to Corsica and with a decent breeze we headed towards Bastia. There are two harbours in Bastia – the Vieux Port in the centre of the old town and the purpose built modern marina of Port Togo about a mile to the north. We chose the latter as it seemed better sheltered and was cheaper. Additionally we could pre-book on the resaportcorse.com website. For anyone sailing in Corsica it is well worth registering on this website as it allows you to book a harbour in advance, paying a 50% deposit by card. It doesn’t always work – sometimes if we got a ‘refusal’ we found that there actually was space.

 

 

Bastia is the terminus of the railway which runs across the island to Ajaccio on the west. The station is essentially equidistant between Port Togo and the Vieux Port so equally convenient from either. We took the train up into the mountains to Vizzavona, passing through Corte which we had visited by car 3 weeks earlier.

 

 

Vizzavona is a tiny hamlet but important in that it is on the GR20 – the Grande Randonnée – which is the famous hiking trail crossing the island. The train was full of walkers in full hiking gear – we managed a mile along the trail in flip-flops!

 

 

The views from the train were spectacular. The road bridge over the gorge at Vivario is very new but the railway viaduct on which we were travelling was designed by Eiffel.

 

 

Our second day in Bastia was spent exploring the Vieux Port – which has an excellent chandler.

 

 

And the back streets of the old town with crumbling apartments over smart shops.

 

 

From Bastia the 15 miles north to Macinaggio on the east side of Cap Corse took us past some wonderful scenery.

 

 

We spent two nights in Macinaggio, one in the harbour and the second at anchor outside. Sadly the swimming there was limited!

 

 

Cap Corse is noted for its windy and rough weather, however we rounded the cape 4 cables south of Ile de la Giraglia – a lighthouse but little else – in benign conditions. 43º01’N is as far north as we will go.

 

Turning south we entered St Florent at 1530. VHF calls brought no response so we found a slot on what we thought was the visitors’ pontoon. Shortly after a pontonnier arrived who appeared to have had an extremely good and liquid Sunday lunch. However he did help us to move to a nearby mooring.

 

Though an old town, St Florent nowadays is a smart tourist resort. The only notable building is a Martello tower – shut to the public. However the main attraction is the marina where on the main quay there are gleaming ranks of 100 foot+ motor yachts. There is barely room for them to enter the harbour but all are professionally crewed. On land the marina front is an endless row of restaurants. However we did manage to find a back street hostelry for a decent meal. We had seen few English boats in Corsica and none in Elba but here we did manage some fraternising with the English (& Irish) couple on the Hanse ‘Custard Pie’.

 

 

The coast to the west of St Florent is almost completely deserted. There are some wonderful beaches with long stretches of white sand but no roads. The water taxis from St Florent do a roaring trade taking people out to the beaches for the day but by night they are deserted apart from a few anchored boats and lots of space. We spent a peaceful night anchored off Playa de Saleccia after a lunch stop off Playa de Loto.

 

 

And a further night off Algajola after lunching in Anse de Peraiola.

The routine of swim, breakfast, swim, move to a new anchorage, swim, lunch, siesta, swim, move again to a nigh time anchorage, swim, supper, needed to be broken so on 1^st July we moored in Calvi.

 

 

There is a massive marina in Calvi but a small part of it is just under the Tour de Sel on the bottom left of the picture. We were lucky enough to get a berth here with the best views and away from the crowds. On our next visit we will demand a slot here!

 

 

Calvi is a very attractive town and the climb to the top of the citadel well worth the effort.

 

 

From Calvi it is only about 25 miles to Girolata. This has the reputation of being an extremely beautiful little port with moorings. Certainly the approach is magnificent with high hills all around and depth of over 1000 metres within 4 cables of the coast. However we were disappointed in Girolata itself. The moorings are so tightly packed that there is barely 5 metres between boats both fore and aft and on the beam. For this one pays €39 per night. If water is needed one has to go to a shoreside pontoon at specified times and pay €1 per 10 litres. Wifi is €1 per hour. Even the bars are expensive. A lovely setting spoiled by commercial greed.

 

By 3^rd July we were anchoring again. Lunch in Playa de Chiuni off the Club Med resort; night peacefully in Golfe de Peru. Lunch the next day in Anse de Minaccia before heading to Ajaccio harbour to refuel and for a couple of nights reprovisioning.

 

There had been a number of derogatory comments on the Cruising Association website about Ajaccio marinas but we found Porto Tino Rossi to be delightful – friendly, helpful and well placed to see the sights of town. These sights included the pharmacy as Tony had started to suffer from toothache!

 

Ajaccio makes much of being Napoleon’s birthplace but more interestingly it has a superb art museum – Musée Flesch – with some wonderful pictures by Titian, Veronese (Leda & the Swan) and Empoli as well as many others. Having sated the soul we sated the gut with an excellent €25 menu at Le Curieux.

 

 

Ajaccio – big ship, small city!

 

We left Ajaccio on 6 July, the day Greece voted No in the referendum, to anchor in Anse de Chiavari. Somehow political crises seem to have little relevance in a peaceful anchorage, even with toothache!

 

 

We were looking to spend a couple of days in Propriano to await the right weather to cross back to Menorca but first we spent a night on the moorings off Porto Pollo. These were not only much better spaced than those at Girolata but also much cheaper!

 

 

We spent a couple of nights in Propriano watching the weather files whilst a blow from out of the Golfe de Lyons moved through. The town has no great notable sights but is friendly and pleasant with good food shops. We had one of the best ever moules meals ashore – Sarah having langoustines and coquilles with the moules, Tony having gambas and clams in cream – all for a ridiculously small price.

 

By Friday 10^th July it looked as though a gap in the weather was coming and the swell was reducing so we decided to make a start on our journey west by moving six miles in that direction to anchor for lunch, swims and supper in the Baie de Campomoro.

 

With sunset at 2100 we wanted to be in deep water and away from any lobster pots by dark so we motored off the anchorage at 2000 to head towards Menorca some 240 miles away. The GRIBs had indicated some breeze from the N sector but we saw little of this.

 

Overall an uneventful crossing of 40 hours to Mahon. Sarah saw some whales spouting, Tony saw a couple of pods of dolphins, we had the engine off for almost 3 hours out of the 40. Both nights were starry. Being at sea was relaxing – apart from Tony’s toothache!

 

We got into Mahon at noon on Sunday 12 July. The entrance to Mahon harbour is always something special since our first visit in 1999. Having booked in advance we moored to the Club Maritimo moorings on Mol de Llevant. These are by far the cheapest in the harbour at €47 per night and also allow one to watch the world paseo-ing past ones stern.

 

Cousin Dennis arrived shortly after we had moored to arrange dinner for the 4 of us at Taps – aka Can Avelino – where we had all eaten superbly on several previous occasions, and also to sort out a dentist for Tony.

 

The focus of the next day was a 1300 appointment with the dentist and the loss of yet another of Tony’s few remaining teeth. However the pain started to subside.

 

We spent three nights in Mahon. In addition to the teeth issues we managed to service the engine and change all filters. After the troubles with bugs in the fuel back in April it was encouraging that the fuel filters both seemed absolutely clean.

 

 

With the wind in the north we decided to spend a few nights in the south coast calas and had a superb sail round to Cala Trebelúger. Somehow we had never visited this cala before – what an omission. A delightful spot – quite sizeable and so able to support 10 or 12 yachts at anchor – with a sandy beach ashore.

 

 

 

In the corner of the beach at Cala Trebelúger is a sand bar leading to an almost stagnant river. We pulled the dinghy over the sand bar and rowed gently up river. We spotted a weasel on the bank and many blue dragonflies. A Swedish boat also saw turtles but we missed these. A pleasant row with the sound of cicadas and reed beds around us.

 

After two nights in Trebelúger we came on all of 4 miles to Cala Talé. This had been our favourite – but now we think that Trebelúger may just be tops. However Talé is much more deserted and tonight we are the only boat at anchor here. Also we are so remote that there is no mobile connection, let alone wifi, so sending this blog must wait until we get to Ciutadella tomorrow.

 

After Saturday night in Ciutadella we plan to spend a couple more nights at anchor before going to Addaya to be lifted out on Thursday. We will then fly home on Friday 24^th July for about 4 weeks to avoid the hottest and most expensive and crowded time out here.

 

Tony & Sarah,

Ciutadella – 18 July 2015

Malo 37 – Ione – http://blog.mailasail.com/ione