A Bumpy Transfer

As planned we headed towards the Bonifacio Strait in a North-Southern arc in order to avoid strong head winds from the Mistral which bent southerly into the Tyrrhenian Sea. With the main up we started motor-sailing under light wind conditions, however, still with quite some swell (2+ meters) originating from the more windy region. Sometimes I wished we would have chosen a more southern route in order to catch stronger winds which would have stabilized the boat.

Reaching Corsica after a Bumpy Transfer

The bumpy condition caused severe sea-sickness of my two crew members shortly after leaving Rome which forced me to stay awake the whole night. After about two third of the distance, in the afternoon of the 2nd day, we reached as expected the more windy region. With one reef in the main, we sailed T-Fish in Bft 5-6 and about 2-3m of waves 45 degrees towards the wind to the Corsican coast. T-Fish likes these conditions! Sailing at its best! Unfortunately, my crew was not able to share the fun.

As forecasted, we found calm seas and light wind conditions about 5 nm before the Corsican coast. The plan was now to go south along the coast and to cross the Strait of Bonifacio in the night for which a window of a couple of hours with light to moderate wind conditions was forecasted. However, my crew was wrecked (some throwing-up for more than 24 hours!) and I urgently needed some sleep, too. We therefore decided to get some rest and anchored close to Solenzara, Corsica.

The next day (27 July), after a well-deserved long sleep and extensive breakfast we motored towards Porto Vecchio. The 'window' of lighter wind conditions was gone! On the way to Porto Vecchio we already had Bft 7 of headwind (with gusts reaching over 8). No way to make the passage. We therefore went into the sheltered bay of Porto Vecchio waiting for better conditions. One crew had to leave there and went by bus and ferry to Olbia allowing him to reach his scheduled flight back to Rome just in time.

Storm cloud over the Strait of Bonifacio (seen from the Bay of Porto Vecchio)

Sun-Set over the Corsican Coast

The forecast showed favourable conditions for Saturday 29th July. In the meantime we enjoyed the lovely holiday resort of Porto Vecchio.