{"id":6754,"date":"2016-10-08T12:28:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T12:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=6754"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:32:13","slug":"corsica-santamanza-bonifacio-and-lavezzi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=6754","title":{"rendered":"Corsica: Santa’Manza, Bonifacio, and Lavezzi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"View<\/a>
View of the citadel at Bonifacio, Corsica (France)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left Porto Vecchio, Corsica on September 19th and sailed south along the east coast before anchoring in the Golfe di Rondinara, a popular and very pretty and protected bay about 15 sailing miles away.\u00a0 It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of wind.\u00a0 Rondinara has lots of sea grass so there was not much room to drop anchor in sand, and even the sand that was available is thin and offers poor holding.\u00a0 In the hours after we anchored, many other boats squeezed into the bay, often getting too close to boats that were already at anchor.\u00a0 That made me nervous, particularly since a charter boat whacked Sabbatical III in Porto Pino by anchoring too close just one week before.\u00a0 As it were, a large power yacht in front of us hit another power yacht while both were at anchor and swinging in the wind and they got entangled, leading to a lot of shouting and rushed activity.\u00a0 As the offending yacht re-anchored alongside Sabbatical III, I stood on deck with my hands on my hips and stared at him just to let him know of my concerns.\u00a0 Hopefully, my actions persuaded him to stay a few meters further from me than he otherwise would have.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the crowd made us nervous all night and we left first thing in the morning.<\/p>\n

I checked the charts looking for someplace less popular with lots of space even if it was not as well protected.\u00a0 The large bay at Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Manza fit the bill perfectly.\u00a0 It was wide open to the northeast quadrant but there was only one other vessel at anchor when we arrived, and he soon left, and we could tell that as long as we paid attention to wind direction and were willing to put up with some swell from the strong wind, we could anchor in peace and security.\u00a0 Ashore, there was a beach bar that was only open on the weekend, and the small hamlet of Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Manza \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so small that it lacked basics such as a bakery or any type of store, and bus service.\u00a0 However, the small Hotel du Golfe was open along with the hotel restaurant.\u00a0 What a gem it turned out to be.\u00a0 We ate at the hotel restaurant every day and in the late afternoon sat on their patio overlooking the bay and drank Pastis while using their WiFi.\u00a0 There was a beautiful walk along the north side of the bay with small sandy beaches interspersed with rocky shore.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The bay at Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Manza in southeastern Corsica where we anchored for five days<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of the citadel at Bonifacio, Corsica (France)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our plan was to spend a couple of nights in Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Manza, waiting for the wind to settle down, and then sail around to the famous city of Bonifacio, set on the white chalk cliffs of the Bonifacio Strait, where we would have to stay in a pricey marina.\u00a0 As we walked along the bay after lunch at the Hotel du Golfe on our first day, our waiter, Silvio, drove by and asked if we needed a ride.\u00a0 He was going to Bonifacio.\u00a0 So we hopped into his car and 15 minutes later we at the citadel of Bonifacio, a high promontory overlooking the Straits. \u00a0It is such an impressive place. \u00a0A walled city dating to the 9th<\/sup> century sitting on a narrow peninsular high over the Mediterranean. There is a very narrow fjord that cuts through sheer chalk cliffs and into the small port. While there we noticed that the marina was full, probably because boats were waiting for the wind to calm before heading out into the Bonafacio Strait, considered the windiest place in the Mediterranean.\u00a0 Both Silvio and the proprietress of the Hotel du Golfe said that if we wanted a ride to Bonifacio from Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Manza on another day, we should just stand on the side of the road with our thumb out and a local would take us.\u00a0 It was true.\u00a0 Because of that we kept the boat at anchor in quiet Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Manza and hitched into Bonaficio.\u00a0 There were only a few hours of uncomfortable roll at anchor during the five days we were there.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View of the cliffs east of Bonifacio at the southern tip of Corsica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The chalk cliffs at Bonifacio are not made of the most solid stuff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of the cliffs east of Bonifacio at the southern tip of Corsica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We hiked a beautiful trail that runs on the edge of the cliffs east of Bonafacio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Every<\/a>
Every restaurant in Bonifacio offers the dish for which this place is famous \u00e2\u20ac\u201c moules frites (mussels steamed in garlic and spices, served with fries)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Corsica\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/a>
Corsica\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most famous son, Napoleon Bonaparte, spent part of this early military career in Bonifacio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wind calmed to nearly nothing so we decided to visit the uninhabited French island of Lavezzi \u00a0in the Bonifacio Strait, the southernmost part of Metropolitan France, on our way back to Sardinia.\u00a0 It is a very pretty place but hard to enter and leave without local knowledge.\u00a0 After a night at Lavezzi, we crossed the Bonifacio Strait to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153La Colba\u00e2\u20ac\u009d anchorage on the south side of Capo Testa, Sardinia.\u00a0 We will describe more of our trip back from Corsica in our next blog entry.<\/p>\n

M.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The anchorage at Lavezzi Island was small and strewn with rocks above and below the water and is mostly uncharted. We grabbed the mooring of a tour boat just as they left for the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lavezzi<\/a>
Lavezzi Island is uninhabited. We came ashore in the dinghy and walked around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lavezzi<\/a>
Lavezzi is famous in France as the site of one of its greatest naval disasters. The frigate S\u00c3\u00a9millante, heading for the Crimean War in 1855 with almost 700 on board, was lost with all hands when caught in a storm and driven into the rocks. A cemetery was created on the island for the bodies and a pyramid of boulders was constructed as a remembrance. This cross on one side of the cemetery is constructed from the ships timbers. Only the Chaplain and Captain have marked graves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grave<\/a>
Grave of the Chaplain of the S\u00c3\u00a9millante.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Boulders<\/a>
Boulders at Cala Giunco, Lavezzi Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lighthouse<\/a>
Lighthouse of Lavezzi Island warns vessels away from its dangerous rocky shore. It did not do me any good. As we departed, I hit an uncharted underwater rock at slow speed that put a small dent in my keel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left Porto Vecchio, Corsica on September 19th and sailed south along the east coast before anchoring in the Golfe di Rondinara, a popular and very pretty and protected bay about 15 sailing miles away.\u00a0 It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of wind.\u00a0 Rondinara has lots of sea grass so there was not … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Corsica: Santa’Manza, Bonifacio, and Lavezzi”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-italy-2016"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}