2018-07-15 Isola Rossa, Sardinia > Golfe de Pinarellu, Corsica

Time zone UTC + 0.00

Local hour (Italy & France) + 2.00

23.00 - Departure from Isola Rossa

Coordinates 41.º00'560N 008.º52'412E

Heading: 005 degrees

Wind speed: 4 knots

Wind direction: 25 degrees from port

Water temp: 27.6 C

Sea state: calm

SOG: 5.7 knots

The winds are really not in our favour while in Sardinia, it's going to blow like crazy again in the Bonifacio Strait area, the Madalenas Archipelago will be off-limits for a while and hide nearby seems not to be a good option because of the limited options.

So we are going to seek refuge up north in East Corsica.

The only decent window of opportunity to cross the Strait safely seems to be tonight or tomorrow early morning. The original plan was to leave tomorrow before sunrise but since the forecast seems to be moving faster at each update we decided not to risk and leave tonight while we are sure there will be no waves to worry about during the passage.

02.00 - Fishing buoys

Coordinates 41.º13'013N 009.º02'678E

Heading: 040 degrees

Wind speed: 6.8 knots

Wind direction: 125 degrees from port

Water temp: 26.2 C

Sea state: calm

SOG: 5.7 knots

Heading to the narrow passage that allows us to cut time getting north. Lots of fishing buoys during the night and we can only see them when already too late to change course so it's a game of hope we don't actually hit any.

The view in this little passage after the Strait is breathtaking. Doing the transit markers was not easy, very hard to see the backmarker due to vegetation overgrown, MR is on our tail, not sure if they noticed that we had these land markers to help.

We are just glad that the two boats managed to cross the Strait without any problems during the night and before the winds and waves picking up. We can see the sea already changing, it's going to be nasty here in a few hours.

Glad we left when we left.