May 24-29th, Sailing to Bastia, Corsica |
It's Friday morning, we're leaving Port of Bandol but not sure which way we're going. Either keep on following the French coast a few more days which brings us closer to the Corsica coast. The trouble is a front moving in that is making the barometer drop suspiciously low and that means bad weather, possible strong winds and most of all, high waves. Not a favorite of the captain, and I'm sure it wouldn't be for me either... Never experienced sea sickness yet and not looking forward to do so. |
So we traveled for half an hour and seeing the sea calm and the window of opportunity rather narrow - either we sail to Corsica now or we have to wait about 5 days for the system to clear up.
Alain decides to go for Corsica. At about 5 to 6 knots (nautical miles) it would take us about 27 hours to get to Bastia on the East coast of Corsica
MY! Some wind! Quick, the sails up and we picked up a couple knots in speed... Too good! Lasted about an hour and the wind turned right in front for a good part of the trip.
Actually, the wind kept turning around... a sign of some depression approaching.
During the night, we did get serious lightning but just a few drops of rain. Quite facinating to observe the changing moods of the sea and weather.
And here's something we don't want to mess around with while sailing... Keeping clear of cargo ships is one of the things to watch for... along with strayed logs, sometimes lost cargo box, and who knows what else!
Alain is drilling me to never be sure of what's ahead... Keeping a sense of preparedness is paramount... and as a good sailor he is, he did just that for 27 hours. I'm not enough trained to do rounds and I won't argue. Better get to our destination than being too cockie. I did dose off a few times but was pretty awake most of the time.
The last 5 hours of sailing, the wind started picking up from the West, the wrong way again. This time, waves were picking up and Alain knew that this was the signs of that depression coming closer to Corsica. About 5 feet waves hitting the boat sideways...Which makes for quite a shake up. I survived these swells without getting sick.
Finally arrived in Port of Bastia. This is the older section of the sea port...
Weather and sun stayed very good until Saturday night when wind picked up and by early Sunday morning, gale force winds were sweeping down the hills and shaking everything in the port. Sunday night was the worst and winds gust of up to 70 mph was recorded. Alain got up through the night and tied additional ropes as he worried about a moaring snapping.
We pulled through the storm along with all the other boats with no incident to report.
We did learn on Monday morning that one of the big ferries going to Sardenia turned around because there were 7 meters waves in the straight between Sardenia and Corsica. That's 20 ft waves. As high as the mast on Alain's sailboat!!
Alain has know a friend in Bastia over the years... He calls him "le cousin" as Domique has Swiss background...
We met "the cousin" a few days after we were in Bastia and just turned out that a couple of Air France stewardesses who had worked with him over the years, dropped in to visit.
Dominique included them in the reunion and it made for a most special evening topped with meeting Dominique's wife for a gorgeous and delicious dinner at the Restaurant "La table du Marche".
We had the cocktail hour on the "Corialis"!
Left to right... Dominique, Marie-Christine (who owns an appartment in Corsica), Bernadette, Alain-the-captain, and bee-bee, moi.
