Porto Vecchio -> Bonifacio

Entrance to Porto Vecchio marina at dawn

Bonifacio or Bust! Right from the beginning since we planned this holiday, the goal for me has been to make it to Bonifacio. At the same time, I know that there is a good chance that the weather will not be good enough for us to make it through the Strait. If worst comes to worst, we will stay in Porto Vecchio and day-sail from here, stopping off in the many bays and anchorages in the near vicinity. We could probably even get a bus to Bonifacio.

But things seem to be coming together, and the forecast is for light to moderate winds today, strengthening by evening. So we aim to leave early and make Bonifacio by early afternoon. It should take four or five hours to get there.

After a quiet night, I'm up at 07:00. Eileen and Laura are still sleeping so I savour the peaceful stillness of the place. Mist is swirling and rising off the surface of the water in the harbour as the sun's rays start heating things up. A pilot boat comes in, followed by a huge ferry that heads for the commercial dock. The HUGE motor yacht parked near the entrance to the marina starts to move. Eileen is awake so I call her over to watch it leave. It slips out quietly and effortlessly. Yesterday Laura said she thought it looked like a blue whale. We find out later that it was a Mangusta 130, worth about €10,000,000. Details here if you are interested...

We're on our own from now on, so the real adventure begins here. Check and double-check the weather forecasts, read and re-read the pilot books, plan the passage. Prepare the boat and head off, with a few butterflies in the gut. The Gulf of Porto Vecchio is very big, and it takes about an hour to get from the marina, tucked away in the south-west corner, to the entrance. We immediately notice the swell as we leave the shelter of the gulf.

We give the Roches de Chiappino a wide berth and head south, passing between the mainland and the Cerbicale Islands. These small, uninhabited rocky islands are part of a nature reserve, and landing is prohibited during the spring and summer months. Laura gets out the binoculars to look for birds. Suddenly the boat is rocked by a wave, she loses her balance and sits back against the cockpit table. Crack! The table breaks off it's hinges and Laura crashes to the cockpit floor. Ouch. She picks herself up and dusts herself off. Plus de peur que de mal. The teak and stainless steel cockpit table, on the otherhand, is finished. I take the pieces below and store them under a settee, wondering how much a thing like that might possibly cost.

Passage de la Piantarella

There are three main passages through the Strait: the Grande Passe (used by commercial shipping, and by yachts at night and in bad weather), the pass between Lavezzi and L'Ecueil de Lavezzi, and the inside passage known as the Passage de la Piantarella. The Piantarella is the shortest way to get from Porto Vecchio to Bonifacio, saving about 10 miles compared to the Grande Passe. But it can only be undertaken in good weather and by day. We have light winds, not too much swell, and plenty of daylight so we decide to go for it.

The Piantarella passage starts at a rock called the Ecueil de Porraggia, which is to be left about 150m to port as you take up a course of 228°, heading towards the Ile Piana. It's a bit unnerving passing this close to rocks and rocky islands, and we are constantly checking the chart plotter. "Remember, the chart plotter is master". Next we're looking out for the Tignosa di Ratino north cardinal that marks the outlying rocks off the Ile Ratino. Once past, we head 190° and back into deeper water. The next navigation mark to look out for is an isolated danger mark called "Le Pretre". Pass that and round Cap Pertusato and we're through! Phew, we can breath a sigh of relief. The geography is changing fast and we're going from reddish granite outcrops to chalky white cliffs.

Bonifacio from a distance. Spot the entrance...

We're heading north now and soon we can spot houses on the edge of the cliff ahead. That must be Bonifacio! We get out the binoculars and try to spot the entrance to the harbour. There is no obvious break in the cliffs. Then we notice a big cruise ship stopped near the shore. Soon, a motor boat passes near the chruise ship and disappears into the cliffs. That's the entrance!

As we get nearer the cruise ship starts moving off. Eileen takes the helm as I put out fenders and prepare shore lines. Then I go below to radio the harbourmaster for a berth. "Port of Bonifacio, Port of Bonifacio, this is yacht Achab, Yacht Achab". I finally get to use my VHF radio license! The harbourmaster responds and I ask for a berth for the night. She replies that we should proceed to the end of the harbour and take a berth on pontoon J "Juliette" or K "Kilo". I repeat J "Juliette" or K "Kilo". No reply. Oh yeah, you have to press the button to talk... Try again and get confirmation.

Now I'm back on deck and we're through the entrance. It's very narrow with cliffs on either side. We can see people way above on the ramparts looking down. Eileen is going very slowly and we're savoring the incredible spectacle. Impatient tour boats are passing us left and right. Thalassa 1 coming in behind us. Thalassa 3 going out. We can hear the narration of the tour boat's loud-speaker. The wind is building all the time, and I'm aware that berthing is going to be tricky.

The harbour is about a mile long and it takes 15 or 20 minutes to get from the entrance to the very end. Finally we spot pontoons J and K. Thinking it will be easier to back upwind, I pick J. There is quite a bit of wind now, this is going to be tough. As well as that, there is a great big ugly catamaran at the entrance between the pontoons, and a small red buoy right in the middle. What in the heck is a buoy doing there!!!

Citadel seen from the inner harbour

I turn the boat and start backing up the fairway. I'm trying to go as slowly as possible, and as we approach the big cat there is a blast of wind that nearly stops the boat dead. I give it a burst of throttle to keep up steerage way and this kicks the stern to port, directly towards the cat! Short bursts of throttle get us back on course, but we pass very close to the cat turning in between pontoons J and K. There are 3 people standing on the rail of the cat watching, but to my surprise they don't yell!?

Past the cat now, and lining up to moor stern-to. Suddenly I realize that there are no cleats on the pontoon. I panic: "Eileen, there are NO CLEATS! What do we do!?" She replies "I'll just put the mooring rope through those rings there on the side of the pontoon". Oh yeah, there are rings on the side, relax, zen... We reverse up to the pontoon and Eileen gets a line through a ring. We get another stern line on and then I pick up the lazy line and take it to the bow. Cleat it off and we're done! We made it!

We tidy up the boat and I try to hook up the shore power. Wrong sized plug. We have lots of juice in the batteries, so we will do without. We get ready for some sight-seeing but first we have to check in with the harbourmaster and pay for the night.

On the way back we see one of those fake train things that ferry tourists around. It goes to the top of the hill and Eileen is all in favour. We ask how much. 5 euros. Each. You must be kidding? We go buy ice-creams and walk up instead.

Easier coming down than going up!

We walk up the road and there are great views out over the harbour. When we reach the top of the hill we can see the entrance to the citadel and the old town on the right, and a path going up a hill off to the left. We take the path up the hill and soon we are awe-struck by views of the cliffs down towards Cap Pertusato on the left and the old town perched on the cliff edge on the right. It's hot now and we are tired so we don't go too far. Well actually two of us are tired and one of us is full of beans! After a bit we turn around and head back towards the citadel and the old town.

We pass through the entrance gate, which has a real working draw-bridge. The mechanism inside for raising the bridge is quite amazing, and looks like it would draw up the bridge in about 2 seconds flat! It was installed in 1598 when this was still the only entrance to the citadel.

We wander through the narrow streets, admiring the views in all directions. We stop at one point and overhear a bunch of locals speaking Corsican. I'm amazed at how often we've heard people speaking Corsican. It sounds quite similar to Italian, but at the same time it's very distinctly different.

The "Grain of Sand", with Cap Pertusato in the distance

We consult the trusty Michelin guide for restaurant recommendations. The nearest one to where we are is the Café de la Poste, which is located in the old post office. It's too early and they haven't started serving yet, so they suggest we have a drink on the terrace. Good idea! Eileen and I have the by now compulsory glass of Muscat. For some reason we always seem to be early for dinner, but it ends up working out well because the restaurants usually end up being packed later on.

Once again we have a lovely meal. Eileen and I both have the "menu dégustation" where you get to try small portions of 3 different dishes. Laura negotiates for ham again but they bring hamburger instead. Oh well, at least it's a change. Eileen asks if they could add some vegetables like peas or green beans. When her dish comes it has courgette instead. Come to think of it, we haven't seen a pea or a bean since we got here.

Laura is taking forever to eat as usual. The waitress is not happy with her progress, and lets her know it. Eventually she finishes and we can order desert at last. We finish up and stroll back down to the marina.

This time we take the Montée Rastello steps that lead straight down the very steep hill. When we get to the bottom we see that we have many new neighbours. There are lots of boats now on pontoons J and K, including two 50 foot yachts next to us. As we get closer we see crews of young Italians milling about on the pontoon. We tuck up in bed with visions of all-night parties, loud music, and drunken debauchery. Maybe they were tired too, or maybe they are just a considerate well-mannered bunch but in any case we didn't hear them all night.

We made it to Bonifacio, we didn't go bust, and we didn't need to take a bus! 

Log entry for Monday 19/04/2011

Fuel: 4/4

Batteries: 1 (engine) = 13.8; 2 (domestic) = 13.6

Water: Tank 1: 3/4; Tank 2: 4/4

Baro: 1016

Weather forecast: East coast: N-NE F2-3; Bouches de Bonifacio: E F3-4 increasing to F5 by late afternoon

From: Porto Vecchio; Log 51 @ 09:00
Towards: Bonifacio; Log 77 @ 14:00