A Ride of a Lifetime: Life's a beach

Baie de Cupabia

Campomoro anchorage

With settled weather forecast we set sail for the Gulf of Valinco. Our leaving Ajaccio coincided with the start of the third leg of the Corsica Classic yacht race. We watched as the crews hoisted their sails and prepared themselves for the start gun. They were soon overtaking us on all sides. A wonderful sight. We dropped anchor in Baie de Cupabia. Another gorgeous stretch of sand, no buildings and only a couple of other yachts. We moved round to Porto Pollo the following morning and were just in time to see the start of the fourth leg of the Corsica Classic. The light was magical with the sun reflecting off the rippling sea and the yachts silhouetted against the hazy headland beyond. We dinghied ashore and had a quick look round the small touristy village which was once a sleepy fishing port. In the afternoon we set sail across the bay to Campomoro, a tiny hamlet at the head of another stunning bay. It was a popular anchorage and we found a nice turquoise patch of sand to drop our anchor for a couple of days. We had a lovely walk up to the Genoese tower, one of the largest in Corsica, and then round the promontory

Campomoro

and back to the village for a well earned lunch in one of the beach side restaurants overlooking the bay. With some strong northerly winds coming our way we decided to head back over to Porto Pollo but instead of anchoring off the town this time we tucked ourselves up on the eastern side of the headland at the northern end of a very long sandy beach. We stayed put until the winds abated watching the kite surfers having a ball.

Corsica Classic

Campomoro rocks

View down from the Campomoro tower

View of Campomoro bay and tower from the restaurant

Kitesurfing on Porto Pollo beach

Anchorage off Porto Pollo beach

Anse de Roccapina

Golfe de Roccapina

Roccapina tower

We continued along the rugged south west coast and found yet more wonderful anchorages. Corsica's sublime landscape and white sand beaches have the distinction in the Mediterranean of being mostly unspoilt by development. We were joined by just one other yacht in Plage de Tralicetu, another wild stretch of sand. As we entered Anse de Roccapina the crew of a French yacht on their way out passed us telling us it was "paradis". We stayed for two nights and managed a steep climb up to yet another Genoese tower which afforded yet more wonderful views of the coastline. Having visited Bonifacio a couple of years ago we continued past and instead dropped anchor in Golfe de Santa Manza. Not a soul on the beach and only a few other boats for company. Our penultimate stop was the lovely Porto di Rondinara anchorage which

Anse de Roccapina

had been our first stop on Corsica back in June. We celebrated our circumnavigation with lunch at the beach side restaurant and both agreed that we'd love to re visit this beautiful island again sometime. The settled weather continued and the notorious Bonifacio Straits were unusually placid. On our way back south to Sardinia we were able to stop in Cala Lazarina on the island of Lavezzi for our last night in Corsican waters. We were surrounded by sculpted granite boulders. It is very beautiful and consequently very popular but once all the day trippers had left we

View from our lunch table, Porto di Rondinara

went ashore to explore this magical uninhabited island. We visited the cemetery and the monument for the victims of the worst ever shipwreck in Mediterranean history. The frigate Semillante was shipwrecked in 1855 and the 773 crew and soldiers bound for the Crimean War perished.

"The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea" Ovid