Sailing The Martello Coast of Corsica

Owen Moorhouse recalls wonderful cruising and friendships made in Corsica in the 1980s

- Owen Moorhouse

If I am to reflect on the time we spent sailing in Corsica 40 years ago, two things still stand out in my mind. Firstly, the ruins of towers that punctuate the coastal headlands and secondly, the magical entrance to the Port of Bonifacio, enveloped by overlapping cliffs.

In early 1981 I made a booking from Australia for a bareboat charter in Corsica with someone living in northern England. I found the charter listing in a yachting magazine for a boat called Tallebudgera. Perhaps it was the name that caught my eye, for Tallebudgera is a tropical body of water near Burleigh Heads in Queensland, close to the New South Wales border.

Back in the days before the Internet, I checked the time difference before phoning to make further enquiries. In Australia, apart from a mandatory VHF operator’s qualification, hardly anyone in those days had a yacht master’s certificate and I wasn’t certain if that would be acceptable. But the owner of the Carter 33 was a relaxed Australian lady who was well aware Flag of the Cors of the situation. She accepted my assurances that I was a long-time owner of a 25ft Adams sloop called Balnagowan that was moored in Jervis Bay and had plenty of rough water experience to match. She assured me the weather in La Corse would be very agreeable in September and we quickly reached an agreement. I then counted the months in anticipation.