41:25:79N 09:13:78E

21 July 2014

I went for a run in the morning, to take advantage of a rare attachment to the land, and ran up to the old castle that overlooked the straits.  The wind had eventually changed, as promised, during the night and there was now a strong force 7 breeze blowing from the west. 

After we had tightened the port forward lower shroud a turn, as it had been ever so slightly saggy in the short sea the previous day, we decided that we would go ahead and cross the notorious straits.  It is only 7 miles.   We knew from our previous experience what to expect, but now had a boat that was more suited to the task.  We rigged the running backstays, and planned to sail under heavily reefed main and staysail.  With a waive from the marineros, we were off.  Life jackets on in the marina this time.

We put our sails up in the shelter of the inlet and headed out through the conspicuous channel markers, red and green posts rising from the sea bed. The swell rolled in from the west to meet us.  The winds blew from 25 to 36 knots, and the sail plan was perfect.  Solid and with a low centre of gravity from the cutter stay sail and the reefed main we had an invigorating blast across the straits.  The swell was at its steepest just off shore, and became more manageable towards the middle of the straits, where we were able to bear away and eventually sail down wind, without being in danger of broaching.  Having crossed the straits we carried on around the eastern side of Corsica, up to the bay of Sant Amanza where we anchored at about 17:00.  The wind still blew and we put down 50m of chain for a safe night.

A good day.