Sailing The Martello Coast of Corsica
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If I am to reflect on the time we spent sailing in Corsica 40 years ago, two things still stand out in my mind. Firstly, the ruins of towers that punctuate the coastal headlands and secondly, the magical entrance to the Port of Bonifacio, enveloped by overlapping cliffs.
In early 1981 I made a booking from Australia for a bareboat charter in Corsica with someone living in northern England. I found the charter listing in a yachting magazine for a boat called Tallebudgera. Perhaps it was the name that caught my eye, for Tallebudgera is a tropical body of water near Burleigh Heads in Queensland, close to the New South Wales border.
Back in the days before the Internet, I checked the time difference before phoning to make further enquiries. In Australia, apart from a mandatory VHF operator’s qualification, that was moored in Jervis Bay and had plenty of rough water experience to match. She assured me the weather in La Corse would be very agreeable in September and we quickly reached an agreement. I then counted the months in anticipation.
