Position:    41:08:14N     09:31:90E

4th April 2013

We decided to leave as, yet again, it is a weather window, only this time there will be no wind for a few days if we don’t leave now.
Again it’s another overnight sail. We don’t mind night sails it’s just you don’t get to see too much!
We have noticed that we go from one ‘interesting’ weather effect to another each week during the Mediterranean springtime! There really is NO consistency with the weather.

We left port at 1530 UTC - just before another rain shower came through.  The visibility was 2 miles which is a little restricted for us but our radar tells us quite clearly that this was to be only a shower and the rest of the evening will be fine. The winds are S to SW at a consistent 15 knots.

We gave the marker buoy at the Cape a huge clearance before changing our bearing north.
By 1930 the wind had increased to 19 knots – lots of wind - so we reefed the sails down and settled into a night sail with good consistent speed. It was a beautiful starry night.
At 2200 we see our first and, as it turned out, the only boat we saw all night!

At 0130 we had some short rain bursts and the wind peaked to 23 knots.
Excellent uneventful progress!
We altered our course to go into the ‘Straits of Bonifacio’ and then first sighted Corsica at 0600. What a lovely sunrise – again!

Corsica is a French Island (Sardinia is Italian). So, I changed our courtesy flags accordingly. (I mention this as it was the highlight of the sail it was all so to plan!)

Bonifacio entrance can only be described as ‘Fjord like’ with large dramatic cliffs on either side of you in a rather narrow gap in the cliffs. We arrived at 1000.
The port is a short distance from the entrance and we soon notice how calm the water becomes. Yet again we radio the port - NO REPLY!  Yet again.

As we enter the port proper we get our first view and the downdraught of wind!

What a disappointment this port was.
Although it is low season, the port was small and seemed full.
The wind is unbelievable.
I’m afraid the port also felt very run down but maybe that is just our emotion talking.

Putting all this together and particularly with no help or interest from the port authorities, we felt the only sensible choice for us based on the size of our boat compared with those moored was to turn around and leave again. Based on the wind and smallness of the port John maneuvered us beautifully around and we headed straight out again. We had departed Bonifacio within 15 minutes of arrival.

This was also a classic reason for always arriving at a new port in the daylight!