Corsica!

To be honest, when we broke anchor on May 5th at 4 a.m. in the bay at Antibes, I don’t think either one of us fully knew what to expect upon arrival in Corsica about 14 hours later, but the island did not disappoint!

Our crossing of 93.5 nautical miles was fairly uneventful, with little sailing and lots of motoring, seeing only 4 other vessels the entire way (2 freighters, one large pleasure craft and a sailboat). 

After hours and hours of quiet reflection, dozing off to the hum of the engine, eating (mainly due to a lack of much else to do) and conversation about our experiences thus far, excitement dawned as Neil saw the coastline rising up out of the sea with snowcapped mountains in the distance. 

At first we thought we were imagining it and that in reality we were probably just seeing clouds on the horizon, but as time went on and we got closer, it was proven that our eyes did not deceive us. The landscape was incredible! 

Along the way, we became mesmerized by what looked to be bubbles floating on the surface of the water. They didn’t appear to be coming from the wake of the boat. Eventually we were moving through large patches of these strange looking things that were seemingly clear on one side and purple on the other. At first we decided they were mussels and that the purple colour we were seeing was actually part of their shell. But upon closer inspection, we saw they had what looked to be their own little sail sticking up. Curiosity was killing me and as soon as I had cell reception, I had to Google “little bubbles on Mediterranean with purple” and came to learn that they were called Velella, commonly known as “sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, or little sail”. The cool thing is that each individual “bubble” is actually its own little colony and they have tentacles that hang down in the water to catch their prey. Each pod is a colony of all-male or all-female polyps. Apparently they are found in the ocean waters and the Mediterranean in late spring and early summer in the millions!  

Dilemma solved, we could now focus on our destination, Calvi, a small town on the northwest coast of Corsica that sits on a crescent-shaped bay with a sandy beach (population approximately 5 400). According to legend, Christopher Columbus came from Calvi and there is a monument there in his honour. 

We anchored along with another boat in a bay just outside of the town, remaining stunned by the incredible views and landscape. 

After a very peaceful sleep, a tour of the town the next morning led us to a French pastry shop and a fresh-baked reward to enjoy after our hike up to the top of the old town. The view was impressive, with sea and mountains all around. 

As we pulled out of the bay to head to our next destination, we could see dolphins swimming off in the distance. I hoped this was a good sign of things to come.