From Monte Carlo to Ajaccio on Corsica is only a short hop and by 7 am we were at the pilot station after a very scenic sail away from Monte Carlo at 10 pm last night. Ajaccio is a major ferry port and as usual they go first so we had to line up behind the Ferry Napoleon Bonaparte and sail into port staying a mile behind this ferry. The ship docked in downtown and there was only the vast expanse of the ferry terminal to cross before arriving in the old town of Ajaccio. Corsica is of course the island where Napoleon was born and one of the ships tours visited his birth place.

We only only stayed for a short while here and at 2 pm, it was departure time. To get to our next port of call, Naples, we had to sail around the Southern part of Corsica, as Ajaccio is located on it’s West side. From there we passed through the strait between Corsica and Sardinia and those extra miles make it a tight schedule to get to Naples on time. The weather cleared nicely during the morning so we had a very scenic transfer through Strait Bonefacio. This area is of great natural beauty with National Parks on both sides of the strait. Apart from that there are a lot of ruins to see as well. In the past many a battle and skirmish was fought in this area and several old forts and look out posts remind of this.

Traffic here is regulated by a Traffic Control station that advises ships about local situations. This time we had a very French Lady on the VHF inquiring about the Pessanger sheep Eendamme and wanted to know all sorts of things for her records. Things got a bit complicated when it came to the name and nationality of the captain. Wass isse Utch, was country issa Utch. “Dutch is Holland” we came back. Ah Holland, Pays Bays verrrry goote. And ze name of zee captain ?? Then things got very complicated with my last name. After one vague attempt of trying to pronounce it, she gave up and wished us a Bon voyage.

Nowadays sailing through this area is quite simple, we have good radars, we can project the sea chart on the radar screen and with GPS as a back up we can stay nicely on the course line. The main thing the navigator has to do is keep a good look-out for traffic that might be in the way. Along the route we could still see the various navigation markers from the old days. Pyramids, which when in line with each other, would give clearance around a rock or a shallow patch. Also we saw old navigation markers that when in line with each other indicated the border between Corsica (France) and Sardinia (Italy). There must have been a time in the past, when it was not appreciated when one crossed the border here as these markers did not have any other navigational significance.

It takes about 90 minutes, at full speed, to get through the Strait of Bonifacio and then it is a straight shot to the Bay of Naples. The weather for tomorrow looks very good, so hopefully a lot of the guests will take the tour to Pompeii and Sorriento, as the city of Naples might be very much closed, it being a Sunday. Naples is a beautiful city to explore but I have warned the guests not to stray too much from the beating track. Naples was once known as the capital of the pickpockets and there still are quite a few locals working very hard everyday to retain that title.