Back to the mainland

Sardinia done, off back to the mainland via the East coast of Corsica. Leaving Santa Teresa with a nice North Westerlie we sailed to Sant Amanza bay on the South East coast of Corsica to meet up with Beligou our German friends from the canals and Cecina. En route we were approached from behind by a grey figure and we began to prepare for an official netting as we had experienced off Cagliairi.

But no. After a rear approach this guy overtook us. Some kind of military marine tow truck I think.

A quiet anchor and a lovely barbeque on board Beligou.  That's the good think about steel boats you don't have to worry about them melting. Sad farewells the next morning then off up the East coast to Solenzara. Passing inside the Cerbicles and past Porto Vechio heading North. Just like the East coast of Sardinia Corsica is sparse in population due to malaria and pirates over the centuries. Lakes or 'Etangs' not helping with the Malaria issues.  

With just the odd effort to protect.

Solenzara was built to assist tourism in the area and I think they made a pretty good job of it.

They even had a procession although not quite on the scale of Cagliairi.

Each 2nd of June they cart this statue of St Erasmus down to the marina and bless the boats. Erasmus is the patron saint of sailors and, rather interestingly, the patron saint of abdominal pain. Unlike the usual saints of his era he did not turn up dead to become a saint but suffered quite a bit under our old friend the Emperor Diocletian. He was beaten, starved, set alight, placed in a barrel full of spikes and rolled around for a bit but somehow he survived for quite a while. He once carried on preaching when a lightning strike landed beside him impressing the sailors who prayed to him during storms. He eventually met his end by having his stomach slit open and having his intestines wound around a windlass. That would I suppose upset the tummy a little. Strangely the windlass probably belonged to a sailor but hay ho.

Any way Erasmus didn't seem to help us berthing as the entry was with a strong crosswind and we ended up side on to the dock sustaining a couple of scratches to the gelcoat. Our second attempt was more successful as I used the boat hook to grab the boat upwind and held us while we tied up.

I carried out an oil change on Hermy to keep her sweet and all was well until we came to start her up and all she did was go click. Damn! Mrs K knew something would go wrong before we got back to the mainland to meet the children. A frantic search around found a rather crusty electric connection which after a bit of cleaning resulted in a lively start up and no further issues. Hermy likes good clean connections.

After Solenzara it was a hike up to Campoloro a small shallow port with not too much going on. Some camp sites and apparently quite a few chestnut trees. Pasqualle Paoli, the Corsican rebel,was born somewhere nearby and after he died in London, many years later his remains were returned here. 

On arrival I did a quick oil check as I had changed the oil and to my horror the dip stick was dry. Another go did nothing to alleviate this horror. But where had it all gone? The bilges were reasonably clear, there had been no smoke from the engine. It must be hiding. Mrs K said the engine is hot you never check the oil when we arrive only when we leave try it later. I did and the oil came back. How did she know that? My wife knows too much.

It was from Campoloro that we left Corsica and made for Elba 50 nautical miles Eastish and in doing so crossed our outgoing line completing our circumnavigation of Corsica. In fact we did a figure of eight around both Corsica and Sardinia.

Motor sailing is hard on the crew!

We anchored for the night in Port Azzurro on Corsica. It was a bit blowy and we needed fuel so we popped in to the fuel berth and filled up and then decided to make for Castiglione Della Pescaia across the water on the mainland.

Mr Heikell said Castiglione was a cheap spot but it was dangerous to get in to if the wind was blowing from the West or South West. The wind was South East so might be an issue. Anyway a lumpy crossing but a straight forward entrance. Cheap turned out to be 50 Euros a night.

One guidebook described Castiglione as undiscovered by the British but we discovered that it was more expensive than it should have been. 

Next stop was Talamone a slightly more upmarket harbour with a good anchorage which we took advantage of for the first night. Our competing wind apps gave mixed messages about the weather with mine saying it will be fine and Mrs K's predicting a tempest so we slid in to the harbour for a few days  to explore and await the arrival of Son and Daughter with respective partners for a week together exploring this coast. And because Mrs K has gone in to boat preparation mode.