Sunday was a sunny, bright day. When we left Ajaccio, there was a reasonable wind so we were off to Bonifacio. After the wild wind we have been having, the wind was too light to carry a main. The waves were big rollers, 4 metres high, reminiscent of waves off the coast of NSW. The weather was sunny and very cool. We rounded the cape south of Ajaccio and the rollers diminished somewhat, the wind stayed on our stern quarter. An hour out of Bonifacio, the wind picked up to 20 knots, the wind chill went down to about 10 C. Thirty minutes later, we were delighted to see the citadel on top of the hill in the distance.
When you are even ten minutes off the coast, you don’t see the entrance to the harbour. Then finally you see the light house and you enter through a very narrow entrance. The harbour is very narrow, about 200 metres wide, even closer to the city. The harbour is really like a calanque or fjord, with 2 smaller calanques off to the side. We found ourselves a berth and a nice man from the nearby restaurant “Kissing Pigs” took our lines and helped us to moor, so it was only fitting that we had dinner there, and it was a very nice meal.
We spoke to another sailor this morning and she said in the gale force winds of last week, there was a storm surge into the harbour, not at all pleasant on the boat. So we picked the right place to be, because Ajaccio was relatively comfortable.
The town of Bonifacio seems to be split into the newer parts of the city at the marina’s edge and the historic centre of Bonifacio haute ville. The citadel is circa 9th Century and recently has been a administrative post for the French Foreign legion.
From the outlooks in the citadel, you can look directly across to Sardinia. The The striking view highlights the fact that the Straits of Bonifacio are only six miles wide.
