13 November 2010; Calvi Corsica.

When I arrived on the bridge at 0600 in the morning, the VHF’s were announcing gale warnings all over the area between France and Italy; what we call the Ligurian Sea. Another minor disturbance near the Provence was building up and becoming a major headache. However we were heading south to Calvi, which is located on the NW point of Corsica but a considerable distance away from the Italian mainland. With a bit of luck it was not going to affect us. The wind was still from the South West and that meant that the bay of Calvi would be sheltered. At 7 am. the pilot hopped onboard, mainly to have his paper signed and to enjoy a good cup of coffee, and I parked the Prinsendam as far inside the bay as possible, with the Fortress of Calvi towering high above us. Quite impressive. What impressed me even more was that we were indeed completely out of the swell and thus we could run a safe tender service. It was going to be the first day of what a Mediterranean cruise should look like. Nice sunny weather, calm waters and a very picturesque setting in a crescent shaped bay, overlooked by a village built against a hill. It all topped off with fortifications from the 13th. century.

This what a gale looks like from a distance.

I remained wary about that gale warning and was ready to raise the anchor at short notice and between 8 and 9 in the morning we could see this gale moving by. Moving quickly NE at a fair distance way, with dark and foul looking clouds in the sky and clearly disturbed waters under it. For the peoples in Genoa it must have been an un-pleasant day. However the gale stayed to the North West of us and we remained in the sunshine all day. The wind picked up to about 25 knots in the late morning, courtesy of that gale passing by, but as we were in the shelter of the land the swell could not reach our anchorage. All was going to be well. It only caused the Prinsendam to swing a bit more behind its anchor, as the wind first caught the balconies on the portside and when it had pushed the ship over, the anchor would pull it back and that exposed the other side of the ship to the wind. When plotted on the chart we could see a nice pendulum motion behind the anchor. Our balconies are deep square pockets and the wind really can get hold of those and that can cause the Prinsendam to yawn considerably behind its anchor. Pushed from one side to the other and back again. And so she did today. However this will not affect a safe tender service, as long as there is no swell. By 10 am. the dark clouds had all disappeared towards Italy and I knew we were going to have a great day.

Sunny Calvi with the noon time sun casting its rays over the yacht harbour and the esplanade.

From the bridge I could see that all the restaurants on the harbour front were doing a roaring trade with our guests occupying the terraces and enjoying the Mediterranean sun, wine and food. For me it was back to the computer and time to worry about tomorrow. Yesterday’s weather forecast and local opinion had convinced me that the wind would veer to the South East during the course of today so that I would have a sheltered anchorage in Alghero tomorrow which will be another tender port. With a SW westerly swell it can be a really unsafe place. Now this un-expected gale was sustaining this swell from the SW and muddled up the situation considerably. Deviating to another port is not possible at the last moment as it weekend and the local harbour masters require to have their bookings in by Friday lunch time. So the only thing that I can do is hope for the best.

That hope was given a boost when I saw that the wind started to die down by 4 pm. and started to move to a more Southerly direction. We might be in luck tomorrow. At departure I asked all the guests to say a little prayer before going to bed and maybe 780 guests focusing together at the same time will do the trick.

All our guests were back nicely on time, as the temperature outside dropped considerably as soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains (highest peak 8000 feet) Furthermore a lot of the shops were closed, due to the fact that the Med season is really over and thus there was not much reason to linger ashore when the sun started to set. So we raised the anchor, with the pilot waving goodbye from his boat and moved slowly out of the bay. There were two sports fishermen boats in the whole of the big bay, only two, but they were of course sitting exactly on my course line. So 38000 tons of Prinsendam had to go around two boats of barely 5 tons burden with two guys on board playing with fishing rods. It is a strange world sometimes.

Tonight we are sailing on a southerly course, west of Corsica and later Sardinia. That should bring us to the anchorage of Alghero around 0630, just when the dawn starts and then we will see if there is still swell left and if so how much. I am hoping for the best.