41:45.96 N  008:39.2E

We left the marina in Castelsardo after our extended stay there avoiding gales.  We had had excellent company on the pontoon there with the friendly and helpful folk on the French yacht next to us and Austrian to the right.  We had bonded over a couple of hours of securing our boats when the marina was hit by a sudden squall requiring much leaping off and on each other’s decks to secure additional ropes, tighten up the mooring lines and so on so that we all sat comfortably rather than bashing into each other and the jetty.  It is always much easier when people help each other rather than only working on their own yacht.  We didn’t feel we had contributed all that much to the proceedings so were surprised (and delighted) when the French crew gave us a bottle of desert wine that their village is famous for.

Although we had a French flag to fly while in Corsica and France we hadn’t been aware of the custom to fly the Corsican regional flag as well.  This is the profile of a Moors Head.  Getting into flag making in a big way Carol decided that this one had to be possible even though there wasn’t a straight line on it.   We downloaded a picture of it from the internet, enlarged it on the computer screen and then traced round it (pressing very, very lightly) onto a piece of white cloth.  Ten minutes with a black marker pen and the job was done.  Except that we then realised the piece of cloth wasn’t really big enough for the size of head.  So Carol stitched some more cloth round the edges. 

We now proudly fly the correct flag even if it looks as though it has a bit of a frilly edge.

We spent four nights exploring anchorages on the south of the island enjoying hot sun and warmer water.  Carol had her telephone interview for the Olympic Games 2012 volunteer programme as described in the Quick Update and then we headed up along the west coast to the capital, Ajaccio hoping to get into one of the two marinas there.  No chance; as described in the even quicker Quick Update. 

We had one night at anchor and tried again getting in late on Saturday afternoon so just enough time to finish the shopping, do some laundry  and hose the boat down.  We slid into bed in the early hours and finished off early next morning just in time for the two taxi’s needed to bring a family of five who have just left Canada for Singapore, calling in on England and France on the way.