Ajaccio on Robin’s Birthday

We arrived in Ajaccio this afternoon. The sailing today was perfect! Winds 18 to 20 knots true at 50 degrees apparent. The forecast was for 20 knots by 10am, but as we left at just after 10, it was only 5 knots. The forecasts in the Med are pretty accurate though, so we raised the sails with 1 reef in the main and full jib and sure enough, within 30 minutes we had 18 knots just forward of the beam. We spent a very fun couple of hours between 10 and 12knots boat speed. 

After leaving Calvi we stopped in an anchorage under some cliffs, just west of Porto for a night, and then spent the next night off the beach in Sagone. The Porto anchorage was very deep and very rocky. We arrived as it was getting dark, which was not great because we couldn’t tell where the rocks were. We took a guess, dropped the anchor, and then I had Gavin shine a flashlight into the water while I snorkeled around the boat. The water was so clear, that I could see a lot of big boulders around us but they were deep enough that we weren’t in any danger of hitting them. 

Tonight we are in a very crowded anchorage just beside the port of Ajaccio. It’s deep again. We are anchored in 17m which is right at the limit of our 50m of chain. I really should have ordered 75m of chain when I purchased the boat, 50 is not enough. I do have more nylon rode attached to the chain, but it’s not very useful because I can’t attach the bridle to it. 

There are a lot of boats in this anchorage, squeezed in like sardines, and they have been arriving steadily all afternoon. I suspect many are looking for a refuge from the 25-30 knot winds forecast for the next few days. It seems pretty calm in the anchorage, but the winds are swirling around and everyone is swinging all over the place. It’s a bit of a worry because in deep anchorages like this with lots of boats, there’s more likelihood of someone swinging or dragging into us. 

We are going to a restaurant tonight for Robin’s birthday celebrations, and we are very excited to have Corinne, a family member from Australia joining us on Sunday, for the rest of the trip down Corsica and then to the south end of Sardinia.