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Capo Testa Lighthouse. Lat 41° 14.6'N Long. 9° 08.7'E Summer 1998
After the turn the channel stays wide and deep for a while and then narrows and leads down a cul de sac to the town. The wind was funnelling right up our stern and blowing us down into the dead end ahead. Not only that, but it was blowing a lot of other boats down the same dead end and a bad feeling was coming over me when the Channel 9 reported “Port complet! Port complet!” 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 and go stern-to the cliffs. Odysseus is reputed to have hidden from cannibals in the first one - Calanque de L’Arenella - but it shoals to one metre very quickly. As we backed into the Calanque de la Catena I sensed an incident pit opening in front of me. Boats to the left of us, boats to the right of us, anchor chains in all directions and 20 kts of cross wind. Even if we got in without damage, nobody likes anchor watches so I decided we were better off out at sea. The time was 17.00, there was 25 kts of wind from the west and we were heading south out into the Straits of Bonifacio. The Ile Lavezzi and Ile Cavallo 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 was still beckoning.
Since leaving Ajaccio this was our third consecutive night at anchor and Liz cooked from the emergency locker. It being her first visit to Italy on Compromis she chose the carbonara sauce. There is always a block of parmesan cheese in the fridge and a bunch of basil flourishes in a glass of water secured at the back of the galley. What you need for four people. 2 packets of dried carbonara sauce. milk or water to mix. 1 onion, chopped fine. 1 packet of lardons. 3/400g of spaghetti. Olive oil. Parmesan cheese, cut into thin slivers with the potato peeler. Basil leaves. What you have to do. Cook the pasta according to instructions on the packet. Gently fry the onion and lardons. Mix the carbonara sauce ,add to the onion and lardons and heat through. Drain the spaghetti and mix with a little olive oil to stop it sticking. Serve the pasta and sauce garnished with basil leaves and parmesan cheese. Truth be told, we didn’t select a wine but drank what was left.
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The entrance to Bonifacio is something special. Coming from the north the coastline suddenly changes and white cliffs rise sheer out of the sea. We set a course for the red tower halfway up the cliffs of Pte de la Mondetta and gradually all became clear. A slit appears in the cliffs and ahead is a turn to starboard down in to the harbour.
The safe and easy option was to sail the 10nM to Sardinia and anchor in the Cala Spinosa under Capo Testa because of the “excellent holding” 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 in her bikini sailed us back to Bonifacio in time to find plenty of berths.