Two nights in Porto Pollo and it was time for the migrants to head south toward Bonifacio. With the sun rising over the high mountains of the interior we were up and away nice and early. Although we had enough muscle power on board to pull up twenty five metres of chain there is no doubt that the electric windlass makes light work of the job and cuts out all those work songs. There are sometimes problems with the chain snagging in the anchor well but winter modifications should ensure that Liz and I can operate the system safely on our own.

Under plain sail Compromis reached across the Golfe de Valinco leaving the P. de Campomoro well to port and then followed the coast as it swung south east and past the only offshore dangers, Les Moins..The wind freshened and we made good speed along a rocky coastline guarded by Genose towers with the hazy mountains as a backdrop.

From the photographs and description I had expected Bonifacio to be something special and the approach was not a disappointment. Very suddenly the rocks changed from volcanic to sedimentary limestone and white cliffs rose sheer out of the sea. As the pilot said, it was difficult to spot the entrance which is “ a slit in the cliffs that turns in on itself.”  However we put our faith in the system and set a course for the red tower halfway up the cliffs of Pte de la Mondetta and gradually all became clear. The entrance gradually opened up and we were looking down the throat of the entrances and could see the dog leg to the right a hundred yards or so inside. All day we had sailed on our own with a few yachts on the horizon but all of a sudden they all seemed to converge at the same spot at the same time. Just like a racing mark really. We motored in between spectacular cliffs and watched the trip boats taking their customers in and out of caves not much higher than their launches while my crew ran around the deck taking photographs.

After the right turn the channel stays wide and deep for a while and then narrows and leads down a cul de sac to the town. Now the wind had really got up and the cliffs were funneling it right up our stern and blowing us down into the dead end right up ahead. Not only that, but it was blowing a lot of other boats down the same dead end and I was just starting to visualise the melee that might ensue once we got there when the phrase rang out on channel 9 “Port compleat! Port compleat!” At least I didn’t have to go down into that melee but where the hell was I going to go?

There were two calanques to port but in both we would have to drop anchor, go stern-to the cliffs and get lines ashore. Odyssyeus is reputed to have hidden from cannibals in the first one - Calanque de L’Arenella - but it shoals to one metre very quickly and another boat had already strung itself across most of the entrance. As we backed into the Calanque de la Catena I had the ominous sense of an incident pit opening in front of me. There were boats moored stern to the steep cliffs on both sides. Anchor chains streteched out for unknown distances and there wasn’t much room to put out a lot of chain. In 20 to 25 kts of cross wind even if we got in without damage, nobody likes anchor watches. I decided we were better off out at sea.

We left Bonifacio at 17.00 with 20 to 25 kts of wind from the west and needing somewhere to stay for the night. I was on the wheel and Jonathan went below to consult the charts and pilot. He came back with our options. There are two islands out in the Straits of Bonifacio, Ile Lavezzi and Ile Cavallo, both surrounded by anchorages and on the eastern side of the Ile Calallo the Cala di Greco which would afford us good shelter for the night. Both are surrounded by a veritable minefields of unlit rocks, rocks awash and all manner of nasties. Wind speeds are supposed to increase out in the Straits and the light could be fading by the time we got there. That incident pit started to open again.

Ahead lay the southerly cardinal Lavezzi Rk. and with no intervening hazards there was time to consider alternatives.At the cardinal I could jibe and sail north east to Ile Cavello, which was the option that was fast losing its appeal, or turn north of east to run through the Bouches de Bonifacio and sail through the night to Porto Vecchia on the east coast of Corsica. The problem with this option was that we wouldn’t get to see Bonifacio.

Les had bought Rod Heikell’s “Italian Waters Pilot” as a present for Compromis so I asked Jonathan to search through that for a possible solution to our problem. He came back up with a bottle of wine and an interesting possibility. The northern tip of Sardinia was only 10nM to the south offering three possible anchorages and the ports of Quadro and Longosardo all of which required only a 20 degree harden up to bring us on a reach with no obstacles in our way. It had to be a result.

Of Longosardo the pilot said “Entry difficult at night.” and Porto Quadro has “ above and below water line rocks on both sides of the entrance” and so it came down to the anchorage in the Cala Spinosa on Capo Testa because of the “excellent holding”.We dropped anchor in 7m of crystal clear water well sheltered from the wind and right under the Capo Testa lighthouse F(3) 12s but in retrospect I think we would have been even better in the Baia Reparata a mile to the east. Still we were up early next day and Liz, still in her bikini, sailed us back to Bonifacio in time to find plenty of berths.

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