Didn’t post yesterday, because was just too tired. We got up early but stayed in port long
enough to buy some bread for lunch.
Then we headed out to sea to go to Corsica. The sky was bright and clear, but it was not particularly
warm. There was virtually no wind
and what little there was, was too close to sail. So it was a long motor job.
By lunch time the wind had increased a little and as we had turned south
it was behind us. So we turned the
engine off for lunch and had a proper meal in the cockpit under sail. We are eating up the last of the
Italian cheese and French pate.
Then back on engine and we get into Saint Florent on Cosrica at about
4:00pm. It is a large, but
pleasant port in the middle of a sweet seaside town. We are on an outer pontoon, but it is quite
comfortable. We go up to the
harbour office to book in and pay for two nights. It is expensive (46 Euro), but not as bad as we had been
warned about. The main problem is
that the showers and toilets are only open when the harbour office is open,
which is for 3 hours in the morning and until only 5:30 at night. Plus they want €2.50 for a shower, so
we shall wash on board.
We have a little look around town.
There are lots of shops selling specialist Corsican items and several
food stores plus a supermarket.
The supermarket sells ice, so we buy some and find fresh milk.
Back on the boat we settle down to a civilised afternoon and
evening. We make Pimms with our
ice and eat some nice nibbles before having a dinner of pasta and fresh
pesto. Then we go back into the
town and Richard finds himself a coffee ice cream for desert.
Today we are really on holiday.
We sleep fairly late and then go to the supermarket to stock up on some
essentials. It is now about 11:00am
and we decide to spend the rest of the day on the beach. The local beach is about a 15 minute
walk away. So we get all our
stuff, including chairs, parasol and the like and make our way there. We are surprised to find that on the
other side of the town there is an enormous harbour for small boats. There must be several hundred there.
The beach is quite wild.
There is nothing there except one small restaurant away from the sea
front, and then dunes. It is a sandy
beach, but the water edge is full of weed and bits off the trees. We set up our pitch and then sit
out. We take a walk down the beach
and find the Michelin Rosette restaurant where we have booked for dinner. It looks very pretty. We note they have a pontoon where, if
we had anchored in the bay we could have brought our dinghy. Well, never mind, we shall just have to
walk there tonight.
We were going to go back to the boat for lunch, but we are too lazy to
drag all the gear back and forth, so we go to the little restaurant for a light
lunch. It is a funny place and we
are the only customers. The owner
had rescued a bird (a kind of gull I think) that has fallen out of its nest. It keeps screeching at its mother who
keeps swooping over the place. The
owner says this is the fourth bird he has rescued. He keeps them until they can fly and lets them go back to
the wild. In the meantime they get
very tame and walk on his arm and affectionately peck at his face!
After several hours in the sun, back to the boat and then to a local café
for a drink and to use their internet.
Then shower on board and off to the restaurant. Because I am in nice shoes we choose to
walk along the road and not the beach.
Big mistake. It is twice as
long and unpleasant without pavements much of the way. Dinner is very nice. We have the tasting menu and the
matching wines. We have a lovely
time with the wine waiter telling us all about the wines. The ones he has chosen more or less
circumnavigate the island. At the
end he writes the details down for us and we will try to find them in our
travels. There was an incredibly
light pink and a desert wine which we quite liked.
We ask for a taxi to take us back, but instead one of the waiters drives
us back. Very kind. Now just a coffee on board and to bed. We set off down the island tomorrow.
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