Tuesday 28th March, at last the wind dropped enough to be able to leave Bastia. Although Bastia is a fabulous place, 4 nights there was more than enough to really appreciate its charm!

We would have to make a big jump whilst conditions were good to get as far south as possible so we headed to Pinarello which was a 9 hour trip but very well worth it.

Pinarello is marked by the red arrow on the chart and you can see Bastia clearly further up the east coast.

Our port of call the day after Pinarello would be Porto Vecchio which again you can see south of the arrow and would take about 3 hours to get to.

Although we had sunshine and blue skies on the journey, the wind was still very cold so we were all dressed up to keep warm and dry!

Unlike Bastia which was a harbour where we tied up to the dock, Pinarello is a bay, so anchoring is required to secure our holding for the night. It took a couple of tries to make sure we were properly ‘hooked on’ and this is the view we had once we settled….truly stunning and so peaceful.

We had a ‘picnic’ dinner of snacks and left over boulangerie items e.g. cheesy foccacia and headed to bed safe in the knowledge that we were in a very sheltered bay and that the high winds had passed. We also have the luxury of an Anchor alarm which means that if the anchor moves by a pre-determined distance, a loud noise will, as a minimum, wake up Jacques!

Well the Anchor alarm didn’t go off but when you are on a boat seems all of your ‘Spidey Senses’ are heightened so at around 4am when the sound of the wind whipping around us began, I woke up and Jacques went out to check that we were still secured. He clocked the wind at around 20 knots so the maximum of what I would consider a good sailing wind but not what you want to hear when you’re tucked up in bed!

Calm was restored by the time we all woke (again) that morning and I donned my gym gear. Some of you may know (and many of you will be surprised to hear) that in the last couple of years I have become slightly addicted to exercise, loving the 4 or 5 gym classes I attend each week. I was really worried about how I would exercise on the boat, would I be motivated to get on with it and surely there could be volumes of excuses not to do it! Whilst I have made an effort on most days since we set off, having a backdrop like this bay made exercising up on deck the next morning such a joy (plus there was no one to look at me jumping about!)

We spent a few quiet hours the following morning before heading off and this allowed Jacques to try on his fabulous birthday gift from Catherine and Pierre!

With good conditions forecast for the next few days we planned our onward route to ensure we would be in Beautiful Bonifacio for Thursday – not that there was anything (much) special to be happening on that day!!

BTW – Thank you to everyone who is commenting and sorry if I have not always replied to your comment but be assured it is so lovely to get your feedback and know that you are with me on this adventure!