I spent one more week at Constellation Nautica in Fiumicino after coming back from Sweden. I had to install a new gas stove and do some carpentry work for that, plus I had ordered a new pump for the Jabsco toilet. I think it was the old pump that was causing the vacuum in the sea water strainer. The toilet has its inlet direct from the strainer (which is home made by the man I bought the boat from, and who built the boat from scratch). The piston in the old pump had become increasingly squeaky, and I had to fill sunflower oil in the toilet a couple of times a week. After installing the new pump there has not been any more problem with the cooling water (knock on wood).

With these jobs done I just had to wait for a weather window to make the crossing over to Porto Vecchio on Corsica, 130 miles measured distance. Thursday 1st of August and Friday looked promising, I figured I could do it in 30 - 35 hours if the forecast was true.

I had to wait for the bridges in the canal to open in the morning at 9:30, and 30 min later I was under sail. Not very much of wind to start with, I was making less than three knots most of the time, and after some hours I had to start the engine. But after only 45 minutes I got a good wind on the beam, and then I didn't have to use the engine during the rest of the day. The wind was between 8 and 14 knots most of the time, but the direction shifted throughout the day and night. I was on all points of sail, but all the time on a port tack.

The only drama was a squall late in the night. It was very dark after the sun was down, there was no moon at all to see, so I could not see the squall coming. All of a sudden I had up to 44 knots on the beam. I furled in the genoa and started the engine to get the boat against the wind so I could take two reefs in the main. But the wind was too strong, the auto pilot could not hold the bow against the wind with so much load on the main sail, so it was impossible to get the sail down. I tried to zig zag through the eye of the wind, and pull the reefing lines while the sail was slacking for a short while, and going like that for a while I was able to get both reefs down.

(I have only two reefs in the main, 1 and 3). When I was done with this, the wind was back to normal and I understood it was a squall.

For those of my friends that are not familiar with the weather at sea, I can tell that a squall is a very local weather phenomenon, with strong winds and often heavy rain. This time the rain was not that heavy, I wasn't soaking wet really. In good visibility one can see them coming and even try to avoid them by changing course, but in the total darkness I had no idea what hit me, it could as well been a gale, lasting for hours or more.

Trying to raise the main again in the first morning light, I discovered that three of the sliders that holds the sail to the mast was broken, so I had to continue with full genoa and two reefs in the main. The wind was still good though, and I could continue like that most of the day. Coming closer to Corsica the wind was going down too much, and the last three hours I went for the engine. The passage took a little more than 32 hours.

A lot of boats was anchored in Golfe de Porto Vecchio, but here is room for hundreds, so it was not difficult to find a free space.

Here I will stay for a while to fix the main sail, before I go south to explore Sardinia.