Beautiful day to leave, sun and a bit of wind, although admittedly not quite in the right direction, we are aiming to Sardaigna, but we had a steady force 3 to 4 for most of the day and night and we could sail for a good chunk of the way. We fell into the old routine, I cooked dinner which we had watching the sunset and then was sent to bed around 10pm when it got dark, Ian taking the first watch. Ian woke me up at 2am, for my 4 hours stint. Night passages are always special and this one, apart from being our first on Mr X, will be memorable for the full moon, its light bathing the night, casting long shadows as strongly as the sun. The wind steering system did all the hard work. Alone on deck, with just the wind, the moon and the stars in the sky, keeping an eye out for traffic, wind shifts and any other potential issues allows the mind to wander in all sorts of different directions in a random fashion. I might start jotting them down next time…
Watching the sky slowly lighten in the east is always a welcome sight, waiting for the sun to come up and all the colours gradually becoming stronger until the sun itself burst out of the sea signal the end of the night and its long shadows. The moon stays with us but pale and washed out in the blue sky.
Ian came up around 7am and I went down for a little lie down. I was woken up less than an hour later by Ian calling…Dolphins… they were everywhere around us, the distant hazy mountains of Sardaigna providing the backdrop to this magical moment. We just watched them, mesmerised, for a good half hour, leaping and frolicking around the boat before disappearing.
The wind dropped and was still in the wrong direction, driving us to Sardaigna. We had to decide if we were to land there and cross to Corsica the next day or put the motor on and aim directly to the baie of Santa Amanza, on the east side of Corsica, our shelter for the night. Given the forecast, we decided to press on and reach Santa Amanza as soon as possible. We watch the mountains of Sardaigna getting clearer and the outline of Corsica emerging out of the sea, at first just indistinct outline given away by the clouds above the land. By midday, both coasts were in clear view. Within 15 miles of our destination, as the tiredness set in (despite naps in the sun), the wind suddenly perked up and the swell became unmanageable for the wind steering. I took control of the helm, fully alert now, and spent the next 3 hours battling it out, the sea kicking up spray, we got very wet. The wind went up to 27 knots and some of the swells where about 2 metres high…very exciting! We got to the safety of the baie around 8pm, a full 33 hours after we set off (for a 140 miles passage), just in time to watch the sunset on the red mountains around us. The anchorage is quite busy but plenty of room between boats. We were lulled to sleep by some singing in a bar on shore…we were too tired to join them.
Daybreak