The Stunning West Coast of Corsica.

by Chantal & David · Published September 13, 2023 · Updated January 3, 2024

Having finally left Ajaccio behind us in calmer seas, actually whilst there was still some residual swell, there was not sufficient wind to combat it, so we motored for 20NM’s dropping our pick in the bay of Sagone, which was one of the scenes of so much devastation when the unforecasted storm hit Corsica last year, when more than a dozen yachts and motorboats ended up on its sandy beach, not that there was any sign of it now.

Thankfully for us it was very peaceful, the only disturbance, actually entertainment, was a sea plane coming in through the other yachts on anchor, practicing its landing and take offs.

After a good night on anchor, I paddle-boarded in close to shore to have a look at the “town” and the Tower of Sagone, a ruined Genose tower built in 1581. Unlike the Nuraghes of Sardinia, these Corsican towers are just part of the islands defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. I didn’t go ashore, nor go back for David as there wasn’t much to it really, aside from its amazing beach and translucent waters.

Sagone

We then continued onto a beautiful tiny place called Gerolata where we were helped onto a buoy, bow & stern to keep us in position, and marvelled just how many boats the “marina” could get into such a tiny bay this way. Very glad it was September with only 10 boats with us, including our friends from Mrs Bee and a lovely french couple known as the 2 Michelles, (Michel & Michelle, of course) that Leighton & Helen introduced us to. We would not have wanted to try to negotiate over 70 boats, bouys and seriously shallow waters as would have been the case in August!

We even got a dinghy ride into the “town”, so didn’t have to drop our own thankfully, and we had a lazy couple of hours wandering around, saying hello to the cows on the beach and tried to get up to the castle, sadly to no avail, it was not open to the public, followed by a fabulously cool beer, at which point we realised that this little taste of paradise had one downside, Mosquitos, so it wasn’t long before we were back on board, 18 bites later, (that was just me Chantal, as they don’t like David, lucky him) to lather on the spray!!!

Gerolata

Girolata is a, (quite inaccessible by road), village that falls within the dramatic setting of the Corsica National Park. The small village is set back on a peninsula surrounded by the sea and the high mountains in the famous red rock of the region, and we have to agree, it makes for a very impressive scenic location.

We then chilled out as the sun started to go down, before venturing over to Mrs Bee for aperitifs, then ashore for dinner, with Leighton, Helen, & the 2 Michelles, lots of fab conversation and laughs over some nice wine, but not so great food, hey you cant have everything!

The morning was wonderfully calm, fabulous for paddle-boarding, not quite so when we set off again further north, once again under engine, (have we said we have had to use the engine far more this trip than normal and than we would have liked???). Still the sun was shining and all was good, except on checking the engine, it did seem that our water pump had worsened quite a bit over the past couple of days, so we popped a container under the leak so we could monitor how bad it was during the day.

We actually could have sailed out of the bay, well tacked, for 2 miles as there was about 8 knots of wind, but being a little lethargic and having 18 NM’s to go we thought we would motor to the headland and then get the sails out, so at least we were heading in the right direction! We all left roughly the same time which meant I could get some images of Mrs Bee, who weren’t so lethargic and had a much shorter distance to go so were sailing, against the stunning red cliffs of this area.

Hmm, plans never quite come together as the wind completely died as we reached the headland, so we ended up motoring another 18NM’s, at least it gave us the chance to take in the beautiful scenery.

We finally dropped our pick in another stunning anchorage of crystal clear turquoise waters with a few other yachts for company, for another wonderfully peaceful and still night, with a fantastic sunset. The only downside was our leak had produced over a litre of sea water in a couple of hours, so now we knew we couldn’t string this out any longer and needed to get it fixed in Calvi!