Camilla Ransom
Still in the grip of paddleboard fever poor old Bob was relegated this morning and had to stay behind as we opted to take the boards ashore for our workout. Tom was brave enough to travel fully dressed in shorts and t-shirt whilst I (not feeling so brave first thing in the morning) opted for a bikini and a nifty change on the beach. We arrived, and made it back dry. Excuse the blurry images, water on the GoPro lens!
Despite there being zero wind we’re on a mission to make it up north by the weekend in time for the forecasted Mistral. Our next stop was Caragèse which took us just over 6 hours to reach under engine. On arriving we had the choice of two anchorages, a tiny one near the equally tiny marina, and a larger one off a beach about half a mile along the coast. More often than not we sacrifice convenience in favour of space, but tonight we fancied a walk into town and it was getting on by now so we looked for a spot in the smaller one. Although the bay was tight it was also deep right up to the cliff edges so there was plenty of space. Hot on our heels were three other boats. The last of which came in with full sails up with an overly casual (or drunk?) helmsman who manoeuvred far too close to the other boats slurring “Bonjour” as he passed. Much to the amazement of the rest of us (and some agitated arm-raising and finger pointing from our neighbouring Spaniards) he dropped anchor and cracked open the vino, finally dropping his sails about 15 minutes later.
The town of Caragèse was lovely. As with all the Corsican towns we’ve been to so far, it’s inhabitants are perched on the cliff edge with stunning views across the bay. This one has just 1,200 residents and looks more Greek than French, which later we read was due to it being gifted to the Greeks in the 1600’s. Using muscles we’d forgotten we had we puffed and panted our way up a very steep hill, and rewarded ourselves with a drink and a bite to eat at the top.
