Most of the anchorages on this side of Ajaccio have the same problem. What we need is good SW wind during the day to push us on our way and for the wind to die down at night altogether. The coast is absolutely magnificent. The mountain ranges finishing abruptly in the sea and a train of clouds above them is splendid. We had a nice easy sail until the wind began fickle and died around 4pm. we motored into the most beautiful anchorage in the evening, surrounded by high red cliffs changing to various shades of pinks and mauve as the sun when down. On the other side, a rock formation reminded me of a statue of Queen Victoria… not sure Ian could see it.
Although popular with tourist boats looking at the caves in the rock face, only 6 of us stayed the night and the place was peaceful and quiet at night with just the stars and the outline of the cliffs above and around us. We got up early and had a bit of an explore nearer the cliffs, before the first tourist boats turned up. We were on our way by the time the first one showed up.
Wednesday 27th July 2016
The best day sailing so far. A steady force 5, in the right direction (SW) for once, wind behind us, so with just the Genoa up we made good time. We clocked 7.6 knots, fastest we have gone so far! And we had races with a few boats (although they probably did not know it), one of which should have been flying, being a trimaran but we still beat it. We did think of putting the spinnaker up but with the wind strengthening to 19 knots, we thought maybe not. Don’t really need an epic at this stage and we were going fast enough. Since we were going so well, we did not stop until Calvi, which is the next place we really want to see. But watching from afar, the coast really is spectacular.
We arrived at the entrance of the baie of Calvi mid afternoon, and it is just breathtakingly beautiful. The citadelle sits on the promontory guarding the entrance and the town is nestled at its feet. The baie is huge and bordered by sandy beaches on a backdrop of pines forest, behind which huge mountains tower.
Again the sea is so clear and blue, it is difficult to resist jumping in and at 25 degree Celsius there is no “it’s too cold”. We have both taken to jump off the side of the boat rather than using the ladder. Kind of like this life really. Beautiful setting, we had the best seat in the house for dinner, with view on the citadelle and Calvi town as the sun was setting behind it, splurging all the shades of orange, pink and mauve it could muster on clouds above it, reflecting all the shades of colour, adding even more variations, very obligingly. Brilliant!
We will probably be here for 2/3 days, Ian wants to do a few bits on the boat. As he says, cruising is just boat maintenance in the sun. And I will be quite happy to go swimming and go explore Calvi for a day. The citadelle is home to the Foreign Legion, the place must be full of nice young men…