Baie de Stagnolu -> Pinarellu -> Solenzara

Stagnolu Bay. Laura takes off in the dinghy

It was a quiet night with very little wind, and the anchor held. I'm up before the others and just looking around, not wanting to make noise and disturb anyone. Anyway we're in no hurry today as we have plenty of time to get back to Solenzara.

I see a pilot boat go by, and then a few minutes later a big ferry comes in. I was a bit worried about getting shaken up by wash from the ferries, but he is going really slowly, and he's passing about a half-mile away out in the gulf, so there is virtually no wash.

I go through my weather forecast routine: Weather Pro, Wind Guru, Weathertrack, Passage Weather, Meteo France. Having done this for nearly a week, I'm coming to trust the Meteo France marine forecast more than the others. But I still check all of them and try to stick to the "use the least favourable forecast" rule. We've even tried to get the weather forecast from the coastguard on VHF, but either we end up getting a bunch of static, or some Italian fishermen. The mobile phone coverage is definitely better than the VHF coverage here.

It looks like there will be some bad weather moving in on Friday, so we'll return to Solenzara today. That will cut short the sailing by a day, but I was hoping to be able to rent a car to drive up into the mountains anyway.

Eileen and Laura are up and we get breakfast. There is some activity on the beach off our stern, near what looks like a sailing school. Soon a rib is towing a string of 5 or 6 catamarans across the bay. Each little cat has 2 kids on it. Then another rib takes out another group of younger kids in little Optimist-type dinghies. They are all set free from the ribs, spreading out around the bay, and soon the older kids are swarming around us like butterflies, obviously having a blast. The younger ones are unfortunately getting yelled at a lot, as their instructor is something of a drill sergeant. But thankfully they still seem to be enjoying themselves too in spite of him!

After a lazy breakfast we play around in the dinghy for a bit. No swimming though as the water is still too cold. That's one real drawback with coming this early in the season. Eventually we pick up the hook and get on our way. First we head south towards Benedetto, then east along the edge of the channel towards the entrance to the Gulf. We pass between the Pointe de San Ciprianu and the Tourelle Pecorella, exiting the gulf and head north towards Solenzara. After looking at the chart we decide to stop along the way in Pinarellu Bay. There are so many beautiful anchorages along this part of the coast, but we only have time to visit a few of them. A week is too short!

Les Aiguilles de Bavella seen from Pinarellu Bay

Today is something of a repeat of yesterday, with a northeast breeze and a port tack that sends us sailing off in the wrong direction. Eventually we arrive at Pinarellu. The approach to the anchorage is straight forward, just stay between the Ile de Pinarellu and the Ilot Roscana. We head in until we get 7 or 8 metres of depth and drop the anchor.

The hills surrounding this bay have many houses, holiday resorts and hotels but in general I find the construction in Corsica blends in well with the environment. We haven't seen any of the big concrete and glass high-rise hotels that disfigure so many coastal regions of the Mediterranean and elsewhere. There must be enormous pressure from property developers to build such monstrosities here. Hats off to the Corsicans for resisting, and long may it last.

Late lunch on deck. There is a fair bit of activity in the bay, with kayakers heading over to the Ile de Pinarellu, several jet-skis zipping back and forth, and water-skiers. We're even buzzed by joy-riders in a small open motor boat. They wave as they blast by. We wave back. Dylan would not approve.

Next thing we get a visit from two customs guys on a rib. They approach from the stern. We wave. They don't wave back. I'm expecting them to ask to board, but they lose interest and head off elsewhere. Later on we spot a customs cutter shadowing us a few miles offshore as we head north. Eventually it loses interest and heads off elsewhere too. The sky is getting hazy and it's starting to cloud over. Definitely going to be in for some rain tomorrow.

Nice hat!

Raise the anchor and head for Solenzara. We're motoring now with the wind on the nose. It's getting late and we want to reach Solenzara before dark. We call the Cotema office and ask if they can arrange a rental car for us for tomorrow. The lady calls the Hertz office in Solenzara and calls us back. They don't have any cars. We tell her that Xavier said she would probably have to call to Porto Vecchio and they would deliver a car to Solenzara. She calls to Porto Vecchio and calls us back. They don't have any cars either. It's the Easter long weekend and there are no cars to be had. Zut, zut, et re-zut. Well, maybe we'll go out with the boat tomorrow instead.

As we get nearer to the marina, we call Cotema again to find out where we should berth. We'll be on Quay Est, Place 350. Eileen does a few circles in front of the entrance to the marina while I take in the dinghy, put out fenders, and prepare mooring lines.

Quay Est, Solenzara marina

When everything is ready, we motor in slowly. Xavier is waiting on the dock to take our lines. Thankfully we are sheltered from the wind, and the water in the marina is flat calm. Try backing into the spot. Prop walk sends us turning way off course towards other moored boats. Go forward and try again. Same thing. Try again, finally get steerage. Slowly approach spot, backing in, avoid hitting neighboring boat, don't hit quay. Throw a line to Xavier. He calls out about someting at the bow. I leave the helm to check the fenders but the gearbox is not in neutral, and the boat starts creeping forward. I run back to helm and give a blast of reverse, which of course causes the boat to spin sideways. We manage to get stern lines ashore and take a line from the bow to the mooring buoy. Not very pretty, but no damage done!

We tidy up boat and hook up shore power. Eileen has been without battery charging for her Crackberry for two days now, and has had to severely ration useage. She's suffering a bit from withdrawl symptoms. We fill water tank number 1. Tank 1 ran dry today but I couldn't figure out how to get water from tank 2. Does tank 2 really exist? We'll never know.

It's getting late so we walk up into town heading for the third pizza restaurant, the one we haven't tried yet. We start with a refreshing glass of Muscat, then salads and pizza. Laura has ice-cream for desert. Eileen and I are too tired and too full for any desert.

Back in home port!

I'm really happy to have made it back to Solenzara without accident or incident. But we came back a day early to be able to spend a day in the mountains, and it would be a shame to be this close to Bavella and not be able to make it up there. We decide to try the tourist office in the morning. Maybe there is a bus or something. On the way back to the boat we check out their opening hours. Once on the boat we brush our teeth and pass out with exhaustion.

Log entry for Thursday 21/04/2011

Fuel: 7/8

Batteries: 1 (engine) = 14.1; 2 (domestic) = 14.0

Water: Tank 1: 0/4; Tank 2: 4/4

Baro: 1019

Weather forecast: SE F3-4, increasing to F4-5 by evening

From: Baie de Stagnolu; Log 109 @ 13:10

Towards: Golfe de Pinarellu; Log 120 @ 15:45

Fuel: 7/8

Batteries: 1 (engine) = 13.4; 2 (domestic) = 12.7

From: Golfe de Pinarellu; Log 120 @ 17:15

Towards: Solenzara; Log 132 @ 19:30