Ever since deciding to buy Compromis and have a season in Antibes, we knew we had to go to Corsica. It’s like sailing out of the Orwell and not going to Ostend. Now the Corsican summer was starting to take shape. Liz and I would have the first week on our own and then our kids would come for the second week while Rosie and Dennis would fly over from Vancouver at the end of August, but we needed crew for the trip to Corsica.

Les had sailed on Compromis at Easter, knew the South of France, was keen to visit the Foundation Maeght in St. Paul de Vence and the Picasso Museum in Antibes, but he was especially keen to go to Corscia. His mate Reg couldn't go cycling in Ireland until later in the summer and so I dropped a shilling in his pint and he was pressed. His knowledge and love of art had made gallery visits a feature of Easter cruises to Amsterdam and his keen sense of self-presevation often tempered over ambitious sailing plans.

Out of the blue I got a call from Jonathan who was back from America and living and working in Germany. Having heard about Compromis he was keen to come Mediterranean sailing after he returned from flying backwards and forwards through smoke plumes above scrub fires over the Canadian Shield. Analysis of the gases would greatly increase man's understanding of atmospheric chemistry he assured me. Our dates matched and he was eager to sail with Les again and so it was agreed that we would all meet at berth 725, Port Vauban, Antibes on the 9th August 1998. 

On the 9th August the kids and I were sailing back from Monaco and as we reversed on to berth 725, Les came strolling up the pontoon and, after dumping his bags aboard, we all went across to the London Pub for half price Happy Hour. Les then dropped his bombshell - he had given up drinking but he hoped this was not going to spoil the summer. As the drinks were put on the table in strode Jonathan complete with an enormous rucksack. We were all set for a Corsican Summer.

The next day was spent preparing and provisioning. Putting the spinnaker in the snuffer was defeating the three of us when Michel - the live aboard from across the pontoon - picked up the head of the sail, grabbed the inside of the head of the snuffer and walked along the pontoon pulling the one inside the other and then dropping them with a Gallic flourish  that seemed to suggest that Trafalgar was pure luck.

Self sufficiency was the name of the game for the next two weeks and so we took on 300l of water in the two stainless steel tanks but didn't put any in the large forward flexible tank as we hadn't flushed this out. We never ran out of water and only filled up three times in two weeks and the water was sweet straight from the tap. The flexible tank is now flushed out and is turned on at shower time. There is no cheap diesel in France but a full tank was more than enough for the fortnight even with the large amount of motoring.  The 'fridge is a very large, top loading affair, which was best filled to capacity with food, wine and beer and which we kept running with only two nights on shore power when the battery management system could top up both large domestic 165ah batteries. Apart from that,  power was supplied from the engine when we were motoring but we did run it a few times specifically for charging and heating a tank of hot water. 

The heading for the log on Monday 10th August reads "Antibes to Calvi or, Legging it across the Ligurian Sea". From Antibes, Calvi is the nearest town on Corsica. It has a large marina and a big sheltered bay and is only about 95nM as the gull flies so the waypoint was put in the GPS, the North Corsica and Ligurian Sea cartridge slotted in the screen plotter and a thin green line traced our track all the way across. Honest, I did keep a log running as well but it would be very easy to become lazy. However, I kept reminding myself of those zero visibility nights when the Decca went down approaching the banks off Ostend.  At 16.30 we set off on a heading of 130M and with a gentle breeze from the south west we unwound both the head sail and the main and sailed off slowly on our big adventure. Later in the night we had to furl the sails and put on the motor lest it took us the two weeks to get to Corsica. With the Autohelm 6000 steering the boat and the navigation gear plotting the track, we were looking around for things to do. On our night watch Liz and I were able to star gaze and keep a look out for dolphins. There wasn't any luminescence so we don't know if they came but we certainly didn’t see them. Still it was a beautiful night.

In the morning the dolphins did come to play. Not many of them and they didn’t stay for long, but for once Jonathan managed to get photographs of them rather than the usual slash of where they were a second ago. Just after that we saw a whale. It swam across our stern about a quarter of a mile back. All we could see was this large low shape that slowly dived and surfaced and then I saw it blow.

Corsica appeared out of the haze just before lunch and by 13.00 we had rounded the fort and old town to pick up a mooring buoy in a large sheltered bay just outside the busy marina. We had just dived in for a swim in the clear warm water when Jonathan was stung by a small jelly fish and so Les and he resolved to buy snorkels and masks so they could take them on on a level playing field. This was not the first time that these small, light brown jelly fish had introduced themselves. Their calling card was quite sharp, rather like a nettle sting, and for most people the discomfort lasted little more than ten minutes but for some they left a raised mark that lasted a couple of days. Based on one season's experience it seems that they appear in mid July and are certainly about until the end of August but we only met them in sheltered, shallower, warmer bays rather than in open water or anchorages. We developed three lines of defence: listen to the other swimmers, look to see if we could see the blighters and then send Les in for a swim.

The fortress overlooks the bay and provides an almost impregnable defensive position, so when the English sent Nelson to assist the Corsican Separatists kicked out by the French in 1794 he had his work cut out. Not to be outdone Nelson sailed round the corner to the Revellata Peninsular, took his guns ashore and attacked successfully from the land. The most famous casualty of the action was the Admiral's right eye which was blinded by a sliver of rock thrown up by the cannon fire.

The crew of the yacht Compromis

Had a great big adventure at sea,

They decided to try

To find Nelson's lost eye,

Which he left in the port of Calvi.

   We took the dinghy ashore in the late after noon and walked to the top of the fortress where there are beautiful views over the bay and the approaches. The town is a small ferry port and holiday centre and the streets reflected this. There is a small train that runs into the interior and we contemplated staying a couple of days and taking to the hills but were eager to get sailing along the coast and so the train trip was put off until we got to Ajaccio.

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