July 23th - July 31, 2005
Corsica turned out to be a stunning island. Very picturesque with rugged mountains and a jagged coastline. Lots of small bays and we hit the weather perfectly. Around the island are a series of defense or signal towers left over from the middle ages. Most of them are still intact and were originally established within sight of each other. If an unidentified ship were to approach the island, a signal warning system had been worked out that only took one hour to circle the island. As we sailed along the coast, many of these towers were in the most inhospitable places. My guess is that the watchman was one lonely individual. But you were always within sight of a tower along the coast.
We are constantly amazed with the incredible anchors and associated technique employed by our French and Italian brethren. It keeps us in constant suspense how there can only be 50 feet between ourselves and the nearest boat and 2 more boats will come in and drop the hook in-between the two of us. We have been privileged to witness these amazing "magnetic" rock anchors on many occasions now. The technique is to power your way into the anchorage at about 6 knots with fenders deployed. No need to waste your valuable time in looking for a nice patch or sand in which to set your hook. Nope, just drop it straight down about 20 feet away from your nearest neighbor. By the time the hook hits the bottom, you are already jumping of the back swim step with drink in hand. In fact, the kids have already beat you by 30 seconds as they left the boat before the hook was dropped, having jumped off the bow. The entire process is quite relaxing if you just don't worry about, scope, neighbors, backing down to set the hook or any of the usual stuff that occupies our thoughts in these situations.
This mind set transfers over to driving in Italy as well. If you haven't driven there in awhile, the Italians consider traffic signs and lights not as laws, but as "suggestions." It changes your entire outlook on driving when a sign only "suggests" that you stop, or a sign "suggests" that the street is one way. You can make the decision right then and there whether or not your choose to obey or not. But, if you do happen upon someone that actually stopped for a Stop Sign, as you pass him going through the intersection at 50 Km/Hr, be sure to passionately honk your horn at him for slowing traffic.
Traveling up the west coast of Corsica, we really enjoyed the French influence in the food and language as it had been awhile. However, the Corsicans don't entirely feel this way themselves. There has been a sometimes violent independence movement for decades on the island. The island itself is somewhat shaped like a fist with one finger sticking up at the top. The Corsicans take some pride in giving the finger to the rest of France. France is less amused.
The west coast however is stunning. You see jagged mountain range after mountain range fading into the distance. Some of the mountain tops even have snow on them. And along the coast are impressive cliffs and steep walled valleys. The towns are in-frequent and retain their old-world country charm.
We had heard good things about Elba from some of our buddy boats. On they way there we passed the small island of Capraira. It had a medieval walled citadel at the very top of the island. Very impressive. Elba is the third largest island of Modern Italy. Napoleon was exiled here in 1814 after abdicating the throne. His tenure on the island was brief, lasting a mere nine months before he return to re-invade France. Today, the tourist industry is in full support of the islands most famous resident. Being that it is only a dozen miles off the coast of Italy with twice hourly ferry service, it has developed into posh resort town and a place to see and be seen. We spent one very memorable night tied up in front of the town quay as the public strolled by.
We left Elba and spent two days on the island of Giglio. Thirty minutes on the bus winding up a very steep, switchbacked road got you to the base of an old walled city. Only foot traffic beyond this point as none of the streets were wide enough for cars and there were too many steps for motorcycles. Walking into the city seemed like walking into the pages of a National Geographic article. Yet the town was full of people living, working, playing and praying. It was hard to comprehend and understand the people who lived here, versus our life from the big city.
Our thoughts were that we had better start seriously figuring out where we were going to put the boat up for the winter. We had been hearing some good things about some of the marinas/boatyards along the Fiumincino Canal, just outside of Rome. This was a different area than we had previously explored on our trip to China. So we crossed over to the mainland at Salivoli, rented a car and headed for our second exploration of Rome boatyards.