Corsican pace

It’s been a month we are wandering around the Gulf of Porto Vecchio. We alternate between the Stagnolu Bay and the anchorage in front of the harbor when we need to buy food and get water. The Bay of Stagnolu is a convenient anchorage, well sheltered from all winds, contrary to the one near the harbor where you’re hit by severe gusts funneling down the hills when the wind blows from West. And we did endure strong wind, an average of a gale per week, lasting at least 48 hours. The first one caught us unprepared and we spent a shitty night dragging our anchor again and again. The bottom is made of sand and mud carpeted with weeds, anchoring is therefore uneasy. In a month we saw a good bunch of boats drag their anchors and finally give up and leave; one even run ashore one night and a second one would have followed if magnanimous Ludo didn’t plunge to bury her anchor before she hits the ground. The last gale was a particularly nice one with 45knots established and gusts at 55knots measured by La Chiappa signal station at the entrance of the Gulf.
Nonetheless we haven’t been lazzying. Ludo has made tremendous progress at kite surfing and can now tack up and down the wind. He has also become an expert in fixing punctures in blades! Less funny I admit, I have been busy doing translation work for a German scientific institute that, through its non-profit project PREVENT, supports developing countries in the climate negotiations leading to the Copenhagen conference (www.climateanalytics.org and www.eurocapacity.org). I also wasted countless hours cursing numerous jet-skis, wake boarders and other inflatable sausages dragged by over-motorized crafts handed by machos and their screaming bimbos, running full speed around Ata Jata as if she was a buoy and turning the cabin into chaos. Where is the economic depression? No here obviously: there’s always money to fill the tanks! Speaking of that, a mega-yacht hum…sorry a giga-yacht named “A” came to anchor in the Gulf. 118 meter long, 3 swimming pools and 42 crew members on board, and a €1 million bill to fill the tanks every two weeks, we took pity of them really.
Beside all that, we also started to cook our own bread, with cereals and nuts. Ludo also re-open the war on rust armed with Féral and HB but we already know the cease-fire won’t last very long. We went to Saint Cyprien in the Northern entrance of the Gulf but a gale brought us back to Stagnolu after a day. In Saint Cyprien, Santa Guila or Rondinara, where we are back today, there are now about 40 boats anchored and the beaches are packed, but sea water is delicious!