Girolata Bay
/42° 20'.9 N 08° 36'.9 E Girolata, Corsica
We stopped at this tiny isolated bay as our last port of call before our overnight crossing to St Tropez on mainland france. We had never heard of Girolata, we just needed a safe haven to get decent sleep and marinas are few and far between here as it’s sparsely populated and mountainous.
It is the height of the summer and marinas fill up fast, our nomadic nature doesn’t always align with this. As we rounded into the bay, the marina in the distance, it was fairly obvious a race was on to scoop any remaining spots. A few power boats zoomed by, our seven knots doesn’t stand a chance against them. We put up a good fight against the other yachts, arrived at Girolata third in the queue. We waited. Twenty minutes later we were told that all mooring bouys were reservation only this time of year (Our almanac hadn’t supplied a phone number), but we could anchor in the bay. We had been really keen to get Silver Paws tied to a mooring buoy just so we could get decent beauty sleep, however the bay was well sheltered and we slotted nicely into the nape of the bay at anchor.
After a swim to the rocks to watch the sunset together (All together now… Aawwww), we jumped in the tender and went ashore and had did some cow dodging on the beach. Literally. Cows on the beach. Word on the sand is the farmers bring them down to the sea to escape the flies.
Girolata was a gem. Adorable juice & lemonade bar on the beach. One versatile shop; carved fish, library, grocer, ice-cream. I think we picked the wrong restaurant on the wrong day, there is a selection of five restaurants to choose from however. It’s very isolated and there really isn’t a lot, which is entirely it's charm.
If your not a sailor, or a hiker, chances are you’ll never come here. You should walk or sail here. A stopover I highly recommend.
Charlie x
