Calvi, Corsica

After 100NM from Antibes in France we arrive to Calvi in Corsica, a beautiful town with a large fort at the bay’s entrance. The town is full of character with its cobbled streets filled with cute local shops surrounded by red roof-topped homes dotted around the surrounding green mountains.  The bay is a busy one as there is a beach and an activity center that rents jet-skis, inflatables, kayaks and windsurfs, so its really rolly when sitting on the boat during the day but becomes calmer at night.  They also have a set up for what seemed like a summer camp so there were small huts surrounded by activity areas, there were kids playing volleyball, others petang, whilst a group of teenage girls were waiting in a queue to get a crepe filled with melted chocolate.  To my young son’s delight there was a basketball net so we were there for several hours while he practiced his shooting skills.  He also met a young French boy his age and it was interesting to see them interact as my son understands French but seemed too shy to speak it.

Calvi is such a delightful town that we decided to stay a second night before moving on. We then continued south on the West coast where there is stunning scenery and we anchored in various bays on the way.  We stopped at Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, for some fresh fruits and vegetables.  It looked like a busy town with lots of cars and buildings and a big port where oil tankers could come in and out so it was very different to all the quiet and peaceful places we had been to.  We prefer the quieter places so we left the next morning to look out for a new bay.

Our next planned stop was Bonifacio as it’s a town filled with history, and a large fort that attracts tourists so we planned to go there but for us all to go together we have to ensure the boat is secure so we decided to try the moorings they have there which are aft moorings, To keep a long story short there was too much wind to manoeuvre the boat smoothly and the lines provided by the place were not great, one of them was cut off after my son had been pulling to get it to us so after several attempts we decided to leave the place and move on.

The topography of Corsica changes so in some places you’ll see green low-lying mountains dotted with low rise buildings, there are dry mountains with steep cliffs that drop into the sea, and in Bonifacio, the city is built on limestone rocks, further south you’ll see huge, independent villas that extend horizontally, hanging on the mountain cliff with a large piece of green land surrounding it.

The few Corsican people we did interact with are courteous, friendly and try as much as they can to communicate in English when you don’t understand. We did the West Coast of Corsica and had wanted to visit the islands in the North of Sardinia but the weather forecast for the next week shows strong winds going through the strait and spreading over North of Sardinia so instead we are going to head North along the East side of Corsica. Plans constantly change depending on wind and weather forecasts. Til next time.

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