Ratatouille

That first time magic

Our first big crossing, our first night of sailing, our first aperitif at sea, our first sunset on the open sea, our first starry sky in the heart of the Mediterranean: for the crew of this Astrea 42, heading for Corsica was a real learning experience.

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Published on 01/12/2022

By Gilles Ruffet

Issue: 187

Published: Jan. / Feb. 2023

Discover this issue

Who: Alma, Bianca, Victoire, Constance, Hervé and Matthieu
Where: Towards Corsica
Multihull: Astrea 42
Blog: www.milkandboat.com

We leave Nice for Corsica. I share my cabin with Alma and Bianca. Constance will sleep with Victoire. Matthieu falls asleep on the bench of the saloon at the end of his watch, while Hervé dozes off before taking his turn. Before falling asleep, the girls ask me if once we arrive in Corsica, we will still be able to leave the boat! We are scheduled to arrive in Saint Florent in the early morning. I go to bed calm yet excited by what we are experiencing. This crossing was a timeless moment: we saw a whale, dolphins and a turtle.We bathed in the open sea in the middle of nowhere. It will remain for me the memory of my first crossing, but above all, the memory of a fabulous adventure. We anchored in front of Fornali cove. We spent several days there, and then in Saleccia, which has a magnificent beach: white sand and transparent blue-turquoise sea. Paradise! We arrived in the afternoon near the village of Cagnano, on the eastern side of Cap Corse. The mountains are green and there are hardly any houses. There’s a quiet bay, a calm and crystal-clear sea, and for me it’s the most beautiful anchorage we’ve been in since the beginning of our adventure. I am learning the life of a sailor: I burned my left arm three times with the oven, got my finger stuck in the fridge which closed violently on my hand, stuck a piece of glass in my foot after having broken the boat’s twelfth and last glass, and knocked my tibia while tripping on a step because of a wave. I hope in the future to be able to anticipate the boat’s movements so that I don’t come back from this year on Ratatouille completely battered and bruised. We still had some problems (note the famous saying: “one problem a day“): we crushed the windlass remote control, broke a part on the gennaker furler, and still haven’t managed to fix our anchor light. And as I write this sentence, Alma has just managed to dismantle the lamp in her cabin while playing with it...