S/V Spindrift

A Watering party

THE REASON

Bonifacio’s harbor is a limestone slot with a medieval town on top, and in September every berth is taken. By noon it will be packed so tight you could cross the harbor deck to deck without wetting your feet. Taking S/V Spindrift in there would have been like parallel parking a Winnebago in Hoboken on a Saturday night. So we sailed down from the cute little town of Porto Tizzano, anchored three miles up the coast, and walked. Four of us set out, two of them old men. The plan was simple: the citadel, the shops, and fresh produce for the boat.

THE TEN

Every berth down there is spoken for. Up on the citadel walls it is easy to feel smart about anchoring three miles away. The knees have not voted yet.

Top of the cliffs at noon, three miles in. Nobody has said the word taxi. Nobody has thought it yet either.

Crew number two. Most of what follows comes out of the camera on that strap.

The rock standing in the water is called the Grain de Sable, the grain of sand. Sardinia is on the horizon, seven miles across the strait, close enough to wave at.

Some boats do get in, tucked into the side inlets under the limestone. We look for a long time. We still would not try it.

La grotte d’Ali-Bonbon. Bonbon is French for candy, so this is Ali Baba’s cave stocked with sweets instead of gold. I almost go in. I do not go in. After three miles on foot, that is the hardest thing I do all day.

Somebody’s dinner, introduced in person. The pride comes at no extra charge.

The sign over the bar says Tout travail mérite sa bière Corse. Every job deserves its Corsican beer. Three miles on foot counts as a job.

The taxi drops us back near the cove, next to a ruin in the scrub. The coyote on the wall looks the way my legs feel.

The last stretch down to the cove, the only part of the trip home anybody walks. The boats are right there. The knees have opinions anyway.

Yes! The dinghy is there!

THE MANIFEST

• A few fruits and vegetables, which was the whole list
• Half a pizza each, carried internally
• Half a beer, Michael
• One full pint, me. Tout travail mérite sa bière Corse
• One taxi ride back, no regrets
• Sore legs all around, and two pairs of old-man knees
• Nothing from Ali-Bonbon, which took real discipline