It was tough to get here on Thursday of this week. It has been blowing hard from the West in the Med the last few days. We “had” to get from Elba to Corsica by yesterday and Thursday was the only window. I had hoped it was better than boxing upwind under engine in very confused seas left over from 30-50kn on Wednesday but that’s what we got. We had to rig the side curtains for the cockpit to keep the cockpit cushions from getting wet! Luckily for me, the Admiral and Diane were troopers and Stugeron did its job, so no major complaint were lodged.

We’re docked here in the Vieux Port next to Schnorki, a 40 something foot ketch from Germany. Nice people who gave us a lot of tips about our upcoming cruising areas. They have been doing the cruising life for the last 14 years …..

One key difference between Elba and Corsica for me is: we’re back in France with its baguettes and pain of chocolates! We rented a car and took a nice drive yesterday over to St. Florent on the West side of the island and also explored the Northern part a bit. Great scenery and quaint villages everywhere. This morning, Bill and Diane left and Christian and Karin and Ron and Carolyn are arriving this afternoon.

When we were in St Florent yesterday we picked up five packages for SV Kincsem. One was a brand new bilge pump since the old one was again on strike only a few days after I had replaced the ripped membrane in Pisa. That new pump was installed this morning, which was followed by a deep cleaning of our smelly bilge. Good times were being had! There is also the SSB, which was checked out again, this time by the French ICOM people, and found to be fine. Pochon is now suspecting that the cable connection between the head unit at the chart table and the central processor is defective. So that will need to be reinstalled, together with a new cable. And so on, so on. It will be a busy week!