Solenzara

Leaving the Golfe de San Ciprianu   

After a windy night, the morning of Thursday 13 July dawned bright but still very breezy, though usefully so. Despite the disturbed night because of running anchor watches, we decided to set off promptly and use the 26-knot wind to our advantage. We raised the anchor at 0730 and fairly quickly unrolled the genoa to continue working our way up the east side of Corsica. We weren’t the only people who chose to leave but, bizarrely, we were the only ones who were sailing.

Looking at the east coast of Corsica for our transit further north, there seemed to be very few anchorages. There are also only a few ports/marinas, some of which have indifferent shelter. The previous day we had decided that we would move only about 14nm up the coast to Solenzara but with the good wind from the south we decided to carry it as far north as possible. It was great sailing and the early morning sun and clear skies set off the beautiful coastline and the dramatic inland hills perfectly.

Approaching Solenzara    

And then the wind stopped! There we were, roaring along with 26 knots from astern, having a whale of a time and the then wind died to virtually nothing in the space of a couple of hundred metres. It was such a shame. So we switched the engine on, reverted to Plan A and headed for Solenzara marina.

Moored in Solenzara   

The marina at Solenzara is good, though like most places on this cost it’s not cheap at this time of year. But the staff are efficient and the moorings secure and it also has excellent internet access. We’d been away from a good connection for so long that our computers and iPads were complaining that most of their Apps needed to be updated. This we duly did, but more importantly, we visited the shops. It’s not that we were short of food but we were really looking forward to some great French cheeses and some excellent French bread after some pretty uninspiring stuff in Italy (their Gorgonzola and the Italian equivalent of Manchego notwithstanding). And we were not disappointed. We found an excellent artisan boulangerie which does a fabulous ‘baguette á l’ancienne’, and a couple of small supermarkets with a reasonable stock of French cheese, Corsican wine and some delicious nectarines. And all the while, on the quay at the end of our pontoon, the local firemen were setting up for party – we had arrived on 13^th July and Solenzara has its Bastille Day celebrations on the evening before the day itself. We had lucked in!

Bastille Day celebrations    

The whole town, and all the visitors, came out for the party. There was a bar and a DJ and plenty of dancing but the groups sitting at the tables chatting seemed much quieter than we thought Italians would have been in the same situation. Still, everyone (including us) was enjoying themselves. With the promise of a firework display from the harbour breakwater, we retreated to BV just before midnight for our ringside seats.

And it turned out to be an excellent display. It was set off only about 50m from BV so we rather felt that we were inside the display and it might have been easier to watch it lying, rather sitting, on the deck. BV was certainly in the ash fallout zone, as we discovered the following morning, but we both thoroughly enjoyed the display and, indeed, the whole evening. Our first Bastille Day in France!

Solenzara, Corsica, France