Meanwhile, I spent most of the time fending off their boat so it wouldn’t damage our stern in the ongoing rough water and windy conditions. When they were satisfied that all was above-board we helped them back into their inflatable, but not before the captain took a chunk of gel goat off with the metal underside of their boat. He did apologize, and we figured it was much less damage than when the Mexican navy had boarded us on a previous cruise, leaving a bent stern pulpit and a broken outboard propeller.
The fellas set off again and returned an hour and a half later, pretty drenched but with the 10 gallon’s of diesel we needed and a few supplies.
After unloading and topping up the fuel tanks, we all got in the dingy and headed for lunch on the beach.
It was even busier at the restaurant and we ended up at a snug table in the middle of the main dining area. Lunch was very good with fresh fish and shrimp specials and a large selection of specialty salads. We all enjoyed the meal thoroughly 2 of us pulled out our cell phones to take a picture to remember the day. Within 5 minutes, there was a loud commotion. The manager (or owner, we weren’t sure), loudly berated a waitress and snatched her cell phone away. The restaurant went completely quiet, as the man continued to yell in French the gist of which was “you are not American, you don’t need to be on your cellphone every minute!!” and proceeded to smash the phone to pieces with a mallet in the middle of the restaurant, while continuing the diatribe. When it finished, there was a smattering of applause and whistles. (The waitress was not bothered by all this which we thought odd, and we later learned the place was known for this type of theatrical prank). Granted, we didn’t know everything he was saying but it did take the shine off an otherwise nice meal and we were a bit subdued on our way back to the boat. Todd ended up writing a review of the place later called “the good, the bad, and the ugly”.
The next day we were all up early before the breeze picked up, got the anchor aboard and headed around to the fuel dock. It was pretty quiet in the morning and the fuel dock was wide open so we set the dock lines to tie up on the port side, on the long front dock ..alas a large inflatable zipped in front of us and took the center spot. Todd then held position for 15 minutes before an attendant indicated we would have to tie up on starboard at the side tie (as a large power yacht was now vying for the front spot) so we had a fire drill switching the fenders and lines over. (They wouldn’t let us back in and we got the French finger waggle “no”initially when we tried that). This was the most expensive fuel bill ever but we were happy to have the tanks back to ¾ full and a nice margin of safety again!
After the delays, the breeze was filling in and the port was getting very busy. We managed to get off the dock and out of the harbor without getting hit (no easy feat!), and secured a mooring buoy for a few nights so we would be handily located to enjoy some of the sights in Calvi.
We headed to shore for a walk around and then had a lovely lunch at one of the many restaurants ringing the port (after dropping rubbish off of course!). There was a large mooring field and then farther down the bay, an anchorage which was also pretty busy. Needless to say, there views aplenty, with the Citadel and walled old town over looking the bay, boats of all sizes both sail and power that were coming and going, there were kids getting sailing lessons, wind surfers, inflatable’s, ferries, and a cruise ship that was there for a day. The beach area had volleyball nets, chez lounges, and in the afternoon horse trekking/wading.
I had sent a quick email to a good friend of ours Marie, letting her know we had finally made it to Corsica, and lo and behold she was there visiting her Mum and said she would be by for lunch the following day. (It turned out she was leaving again the day after so it was terrific that she squeezed us in!)