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Saturday, August 30th, Cala di Palu, Corsica,
France
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I can't believe I
haven't written anything about our time in Corsica yet.
Favorable winds and a spur of the moment decision
brought us back here this summer. We cherish fond
memories of our time
here last May with Larson and Gav, and quickly
embraced the idea of spending more time exploring the
island. The raw, natural beauty, particularly along
the stretch of coastline between Cargese and Calvi on
the western shores, is truly some of the most
spectacular scenery I have ever seen. The
additional incentive of meeting our friends on Gone
Native and tagging along with them and two French boats
on vacation here were stronger motivators than the light
and fickle winds that prompted our choice to come back
to Corsica.
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Arriving in Porto
Vecchio, at the head of a large bay on the southeastern
side of the island, we found ourselves on comfortably
familiar soil. The killer wifi signal, free of
charge from one of the hotels on the eastern shore of
the bay, allowed us to get caught up on emails and
current weather forecasts after our two and a half day
passage from the Aeolians. The mistral that was
predicted before we left Salina was still scheduled to
blow out of the west starting the next evening.
Luckily, our precious
internet connection still worked when we moved Zia to
the western side of the bay in preparation for the high
winds. The bottom of the harbor is covered in
thick weed and therefore not the best holding. The
anchor buries itself fairly easily in the weeds, but the
roots tend to give way under load. With high winds
approaching, it is always best to ensure a fair distance
between the boat and the lee shore in case of such an
occurrence. In fact, one of the monohulls that
stayed on the eastern side wound up in trouble, having
dragged anchor onto the rocks. Half a mile across the bay, we made
sure our primary anchor was well set, reversing on it up
to 3000rpms with both engines, and then set out a second
anchor on a separate rode, for insurance.
Confidently setting out
for the grocery store, our sense of familiarity was
quickly shattered as we discovered that everything was
closed. August 15th, it turns out, is a big
holiday. We found a few shops open up the hill in
the main town, and plenty of tourists milling about as
well. This is August, after all, and ninety
percent of Europe is on vacation. We will have to
keep this in mind for the next few weeks as marinas and
anchorages are likely to be packed with vacationing
French and Italian boats in addition to a smattering of
charter boats. Armed with eggs, milk and some
fresh fruit, we headed back to Zia to come up with a plan.
The Natives, as we call
Dave, Desi, Wesley and Ryan from SV (sailing vessel)
"Gone Native", are in Ischia, a few hundred miles west
of Corsica. We have set up a daily call with them
on our SSB (single side band) radio. We have the
occasional success speaking with them, but more often
than not, only one of us can hear the other. We
find ourselves resorting to email as the best means of
communication. "Gone Native" is equipped with an
Iridium satellite phone with which they are able to
connect to email. At one point, they actually
called us on our Italian cell phone. With
real-time communications, we were able to find an SSB
frequency that we could hear each other on! They
will wait out this blow before heading our way so we've
got a few days to hang out before meeting up with them.
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Despite the crowds, we
were able to secure a rental car for a few days and took
off to explore the interior of the island. The
countryside meanders up and down steep precipices,
covered in pine trees and fragrant maquis shrubbery.
Our beautiful, peaceful drive was quickly interrupted by
cries of "How much longer?" from the back seat.
Noses buried in books, both girls tend to suffer from
car sickness, especially on winding roads.
Although we had heard much about the beautiful mountain
lakes, waterfalls, hilltop stone villages and vineyards,
we saw very little of it. It was just too painful.
We wound up leaving the rental parked all day the next
day and taking the boat a short way south to a beautiful
sandy beach where we celebrated my 43rd birthday.
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We decided to move on
after our decadent day of rest and relaxation.
Dashing back to Porto Vecchio, we hopped in the car for
a big provisioning. The last time we had been to
the big Geant Casino grocery store, it had been an
absolute madhouse. The rental apartments and
villas change over occupants on Saturday so all the new
vacationers head out to provision for the week on
Saturday or Sunday. On Wednesday, the chore was
much easier and more pleasant to execute. Loaded
up with yummy French cheese, wine, beer, pork sausages
(still recovering from the total lack of pork products
after our Middle Eastern foray) and a large supply of
crunchy taco shells (yeh!), we headed towards our rendezvous with
Gone Native. We spent the night in Rondinara Bay
(gorgeous but very crowded - and no internet) and
tacked our way through the Straits of Bonifaccio and up
the west coast of Corsica to Campomoro the next day.
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About two-thirds of the
way through our journey, we joined up with "Gone Native"
and their friends Jacques and Veronique on "Saka," and
Eric and Gabi on "Kia Ora," convening on the
same spot just as they were pulling out from
their anchorage to move northward. We met up on the
beach for formal introductions and made plans to eat
together at the small fish restaurant ashore. We
were warmly welcomed by the group. Our party of eight adults and ten kids virtually overran
the establishment, but it proved to be the first of many
delicious and companionable meals shared by our
haphazard group of sailors.
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Jacques quickly assumed,
or was nominated to, I'm not sure which, the role of
tour guide.
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He and Veronique had
purchased "Saka," their third boat, three years ago in
partnership with Veronique's brother-in-law. They
have cruised Corsica for many years and know all the
best anchorages. We knew we were following the
right guy when he suggested our first move the following
day, based upon the excellent lobster pasta at the
restaurant onshore!
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Eric and Gabi had just
bought "Kia Ora" three months ago. This was their
first long vacation on her.
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Gabi is German and met Eric on a school trip to France.
She immediately decided she needed to learn French very
quickly! They are both a lot of fun to hang out
with and so kind and generous to let us intrude on their
holiday. The Natives had met "Saka" three years
ago, boating in the Poquerolles and then spent some time
with them when they over-wintered in Switzerland.
We were definitely the "third wheel" but were made to
feel genuinely welcome by everyone.
A
taco party on the double platform of "Zia" and "Gone
Native" rafted together, provided the perfect venue to
help Teo celebrate his 8th birthday.
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Jacques promised "French revenge" and insisted on
hosting us all (yes 18!) on "Saka" for a five course
meal that we are still talking about!
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Cocktails on "Gone Native" preceded a meal out in
Girolata. The kids actually went to a different
restaurant for pizza, under the careful supervision of
Gaspar (15).
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A
final cocktail and hors d'oeuver on "Kia Ora" rounded
out a week's worth of exploring Corsica, eating,
drinking, swimming, speaking French (that's a little
generous but we tried!) and getting to know these two
beautiful families.
With "Saka" and "Kia Ora" heading north back to mainland
France, Zia and the Natives backtracked about ten miles
south to a magical spot that we remembered from our
previous visit here. Cala di Palu is a very small
anchorage with room for half a dozen boats and fully
exposed to the west. With settled weather
forecasted for the foreseeable future, the girls and I
lobbied hard to spend at least a night there.
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Situated beneath the towering bulk of Cap Rossu which
rises 1500 feet straight up from the sea, this seems to
be the beginning of the 20 mile stretch of coastline
characterized by magnificent red granite cliffs rising
out of the sea. Much of the area is protected
under the auspices of the Scandola Nature Preserve.
Numerous grottos lie hidden between the stacks of
granite. Seemingly untouched by all but Mother
Nature, jagged, sheer cliffs speckled with dark green
vegetation create an awe inspiring panorama against the
bright blue sky above and the deep blue sea below.
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We
spent a day touring the coastline on the big boats and
then anchoring and taking the tenders into the grottos.
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It
is forbidden to anchor overnight anywhere in the park,
so Cala di Palu quickly became our favorite spot.
We anchored up as close to the rocks as we dared in the
anchorage's prime position, our ground tackle well
buried in beautiful white sand about 15 feet under the
water's surface.
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The magic is created by the colors. Rosy pink
granite emerges out of turquoise blue water.
A patch of sand a couple hundred feet square gives the
clear water a delicious hue. I took many
photographs but none seem to do it justice.
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We finally left three
days later. Other boats would come and go, but the
two American catamarans knew a good thing when they saw
it. We swam, slept in, shared a couple of dinners,
completed several lessons of school, read, relaxed,
accomplished some small boat chores, listened to music
and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Corsica
will undoubtedly retain a special place in our hearts
thanks to another unforgettable time spent soaking up
its beauty and culture.
Next Entry
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Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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