Pius, a special floating house

Our cruise needs to go on. From Calvi we sail up north to Cap Corse through Giraglia island and dropping anchor in Tamarone bay. 45 miles of no wind to admire a beautiful coastline... ....fortunately because we are carrying the old gearbox for some day .... Emma is focused in fishing Cap Corse is a perfect place to trek for a whole day. The Sentier des douaniers  starts from Macinaggio on the east coast till Centuri on the west coast passing in front of Giraglia island. .....all informations at  https://climbing7.com/2017/07/31/sentier-des-douaniers-macinaggio-cap-corse/ A wonderful starfish right under Pius while Anna crocheting 2 brand new bags Smartphone bag "Call me" ....and "Pochette". These are her creative handcrafted products  https://www.instagram.com/ cest.moi.qui.lai.fait/

  Our forced stay has gathered new friendships, among all we remember " Le Grand Marc" aboard his trawler Hoasis . To reach  Revellata  there's a nice trekking  from the   Citadelle  in Calvi all along the North East coast.

  In Calvi at the Aire de carenage  we had the chance to find #1 TRAVEL LIFT OPERATOR  Duma and a good mechanic that helped me in removing the ZF hydraulic gear box to be checked. First surprise was the  melted  deepstick !  Temperature raised probably up to 250/300°C due to the clutch discs that have slipped preventing the gearbox gears from being damaged- Inside the gears are intact ,excepting the internal shaft  oil  sea l,  but I am afraid that since the temperature has risen so much, the gearbox body (in aluminium) may have undergone significant expansion that no longer allows the tightness of its gaskets. So we take the  wise decision to order a new gear box even though Pantenius insurance probably won't reimburse us. Was not easy to find out a new gearbox on the european market just after the lockdown period but we succeded directly at ZF. But first Pantenius  insurance requires us the old gear box inspected by their surveyor. One week lost. I decide anyway to order the new

 The 10th of June I was ready to set up the sails taking advantage of the last wind tail of Mistral in order to suffer less the long wave running across that part of the Med since 11 days. B ut my crew preferred to wait the next day....so we had no wind but the same dancing 2,5 meters waves!  The sailing has not been so comfortable ...m y crew has been a bit seek  but in just 11 hours we reached the red cliffs bay of Girolata the nicest anchorage in Corse.  Girolata is a small harbour where is not allowed to drop the anchor but only at a buoy for a fee. But just after the Lockdown the season they have not yet placed all the buoys so we have been obliged to get the 2 buoys left (on on the bow and one at stern)...with only 40cm. depth left (with low tide). The Douane is   checking every boat because whom is not arriving from France are not allowed to reach the coast. see https://www.go-to-corsica.com/to-discover/regions/southern-corsica/porto-piana/girolata The village is one of a kind 

The Mistral is still blowing after 10 days no stop. We wished to sail to Corsica but the sea conditions were not so nice. So we moved to Porquerolles in order to visit by bike that island waiting the Mistral to slow down a bit. ...and we have been welcomed by a crazy nice Pirate that is sailing aboard his canoe-sail all around the Med. We discovered  that he's Italian , from a small village south of Rome and from there he started his cruise 8 months ago but not alone...with his  faithful dog that was so sea seek to  push the Pirate to transform his canoe into a sailing canoe ! The Mistral is still blowing...those clouds tell us to wait . And the first rain came after some while...

Port-Cros  really is an island of beauty and quietness . Since 1963 it has been a French National Park . When Madame Henry, the owner of the island, died in 1966, she bequeathed the island to the state, with the exception of the hotel Le Manoir . One of the only hotels in the Med where we would stay if not living on a sailing boat.  Every day we explored new trails from our anchorage in Port Man, walking  among holm oaks, corks and maritime pines woods.