So I think I made reference in one of the earlier posts about big waves. What a fool I was! The wind did indeed pick up the last few days as per the forecast but in true Mediterranean style, there's either not enough or too much so we ended up spending Thursday night cowering in a marina in a place called Cargèse - actually a really nice little village so ultimately we were glad we stopped there. It was the sensible choice because there was only one viable stopover between us and our next stop, Calvi (a journey just shy of 40nm), and that was an anchorage so if it all got a bit hairy (which it was expected to) then we'd be in for an unpleasant night. On Friday the wind had settled down but Thursday had clearly taken its toll on the sea and there were some SERIOUS waves going on! I knocked back some seasickness pills, Gerard gambled on the strength of his stomach, and we set off towards Calvi. Our previous "wavy" day was during our route up the East coast of Sardinia where the sea is nicely nestled between the islands and the Italian mainland - we had maybe 1m waves. We're now on the West coast of Corsica which means there's very little going on between us and Spain so there's a fair distance for the sea to build up - we had 2.5m waves. That's about one storey of a house, bigger even than the average Dutchman! I appreciate that salty sea dogs, offshore oilrig workers and surfers see far worse on a regular basis but in an 11m boat, 2.5m waves result in a fair bit of rolling around! We satisfied ourselves with periodic mutual agreement that the waves were definitely getting smaller and that the big ones that kept appearing were just outliers… and cookies, there is something magical about cookies for keeping up morale.

[NB: We both felt seasick, either a testament to the inefficacy of seasickness pills or to the relative strength of Gerard's stomach - we'll never know for sure!]

Seven hours later, we arrived in Calvi feeling incredibly proud of ourselves, not just for having taken on the elements (and won!) but also for completing our most ambitious 1-day distance to date. The welcome party (of sorts) seemed equally impressed: a number of the other boaty people moored on the same quay came over to see where we'd sailed from and nodded approvingly when we told them. One of said boaty people happened to be English so stuck around for a chat and recommended some evening entertainment in the form of Corsican "chants et polyphonies" - basically 5 guys in a church singing traditional local music a capella. Totally random but very impressive and atmospheric; quite an appropriate end to a bit of a dramatic day. We also met a German couple who had taken a sabbatical 25 years ago to sail around the Med and are now in the midst of their second - not a bad idea! We exchanged some tips since they're heading down to Sardinia along the route we've just done and our next venture is across to Elba and on to the West coast of Italy, both of which they've visited and had some insider knowledge on (albeit 25 years outdated).

After a well-deserved lie-in, our first full day here was dedicated to exploring Calvi itself. Gerard came here many times as a child on family holidays so in the morning we took a nostalgic walk along the beach to the campsite he used to stay at - by all accounts a good example of global warming in action because what used to be a 30m deep beach (granted through the eyes of a 12-year old) is now about 30cm deep. After lunch we got an ice cream (disappointing - you've got to give it to the French for their pastries and bread but you can't beat a proper Italian gelato) and walked up into the citadelle where we had some amazing views of the aforementioned beach. And the flat flat sea - the forecast had been for thunderstorms all day but I suppose you can't win them all.

Day 2 here we pushed the limits of probability by managing to find a car hire shop that hadn't yet closed for the winter and grabbed our chance to explore inland Corsica. Gerard gets very excited about mountains (which I guess is natural when you grow up in a country without topography) so we drove through the mountain roads down to Porto (a stop we'd not been able to do by boat since it's too shallow), across to Corte (which is the old capital of the island) and back up to Calvi - about 270km in all. The irony was not lost on us that we'd been so proud of ourselves for making almost 40nm in a day and then sped through close to 4 times that distance in a matter of hours. The scenery was amazing, much more dramatic than Sardinia, but there was not a lot going on in the way of habitation. Thankfully we'd had the foresight to bring a picnic - more sandwiches! When we arrived home, Gerard decided it was a good time to embark on some engine repairs so spent the next 5 hours getting progressively filthier. He did really well though and our engine is now sporting a brand new water pump which will get its first run in an hour or two (and hopefully works…)

That pretty much brings us up to date. Today is our 1 month anniversary and, not having had a firm date to celebrate any kind of anniversary before, we're planning to make the most of it! Gerard's brother very kindly filmed our wedding day and I haven't seen the footage yet (I've been resisting, it's not been easy) so this evening we'll be reliving all the excitement accompanied by a nice bottle of St Emillion - can't wait! First we're planning to do a short sail to Ile Rousse, about 10nm away, for a change of scenery and to get us a little closer to Italy. We've been doing a lot of research about where to leave Starfire for the winter over the past week and we think we've managed to find somewhere that fits all the criteria - i.e. reachable before mid-November, equipped to carry out repairs, close to an airport and, quite importantly, affordable. It's just south of Naples so we've still got a fair way to go but it should be achievable in 4 weeks. Realising we're roughly at the halfway mark of our 2013 sailing season has made me consider how we'll adjust to life on land again. Fortunately our next adventure will involve packing our lives into 60 litre backpacks so I won't yet have to face the stark reality of not having everything within reaching distance at all times - at least not until next October.