6 – here we are Corsica - Sailing Illika

Week 6 – here we are Corsica

After the installation of the lifting system was finished (French craftsmen do manage to work overtime!…), we set off for Corsica on Tuesday evening at 9.15 PM. The night sailing was beautiful, and the boys loved doing their shift for a few hours with either Jean-Luc or me. The stars and milky way were stunning. By lunchtime the next day the wind had dropped and when we stood completely still, we put on the engine for a couple of hours. With a bit of wind again later on, we got to Corsica on Thursday morning at 2.15 – so 29 hours for crossing – boys fast asleep, catching up on their lack from the first night.

The bay we had chosen to anchor turned out to be extremely beautiful. Just south of a protected marine area called Scandola but unfortunately infested with jellyfish! But we anyway saw dolphins. Finally, we found a great spot for snorkelling in the afternoon in the next bay – the boys’ mood was saved. We even managed to tease a cuttlefish that was trying to hide!

I must say, we didn’t feel sorry for the jellyfish: we dissected two of them for a biology lesson with the boys! See more in the Oliver’s and Alexander’s news article: The jellyfish

Snorkelling seems to be a daily must for my 3 men. And we’re all training to hold our breaths for free diving. We have a small booklet with (almost) all the fish in the Mediterranean which is used every day to identify the different sea creatures we see. Honour to the person who sees the most exotic one…

It’s been unusually hot the past days, fortunately often cloudy. Ajaccio is a vibrant town, and we really enjoyed the Saturday evening out. So much life, locals and tourist mixed: music, restaurants, bars, concert, big ferries, cruise ship, open air exposition. And one thing we needed to get settled, was settled in an extremely efficient way: we had the mousse of our matrasses renewed. Quite a tricky job for the tailor: no right angles, rounded slightly in length and the upper sides wider than the bottom… But we’ve got them, and they are wonderful! Will be heading south direction Bonifacio in a couple of days.