Somewhere Between Sardinia and Corsica with Sailing Collective

Somewhere Between Sardinia and Corsica with Sailing Collective



We
were somewhere in the middle of the
Mediterranean
, somewhere between the islands of Sardinia
and Corsica,
Italy and France, but for the next few days, all that really
mattered was the geomorphology of different coves, whether we
spotted sea urchins or fire coral on the seafloor, the angle of our
tack at full sail and trying to describe what shade of blue the
ocean was.

Sometimes, the only thing to do was to dive in. The sea was 10
degrees cooler than the balmy air, making for a perfectly
invigorating immersion. We’d flutter around new coves, exploring
the shapes of their perimeters, scaling rocks above the surface.
Afterwards, drying off naturally in the sun and napping on the bow,
my cheek pressed to the warm teak deck, I wasn’t sure it was
possible to be more relaxed.

There were adventures on land, too. We docked at the Bonifacio
marina for the night, nestled between dramatic granite cliffs, at
the southern tip of Corsica, cosying up to mega yachts and a ragtag
community of Mediterranean pleasure cruisers. There was a little
town to explore with cafés and ice-cream shops, terraces crawling
with bougainvillea, a charming maritime antique shop and a tacky
nightclub where revellers, ourselves included, spilled onto the
docks after midnight.

Back in Italy, at La Maddalena we rented scooters and rode
across a bridge to Caprera, through pine forests to secret rocky
beaches and up to the highest point where a military fort had been
in use throughout World War Two. There’s plenty of ancient Roman
history in Caprera, but for us, the thrill was the view, rocky
coves, the epic stretch of the blue sea (what shade was it now?),
the islands on the horizon that felt familiar; our shared
landscape.

“We want to bring people to as many places around the world as
possible for real cultural engagement,” says Dayyan Armstrong,
founder of Sailing Collective and our captain for the
voyage. His travel company arranges charters in Europe in the
summer and the
Caribbean
in the winter to destinations including
Croatia
,
Turkey
, Greece,
British Virgin Islands, Grenadines, Martinique,
Dominica
and Saint Lucia, as well as far-flung locales like

Thailand
and Madagascar.

ashleycamper.com | @ashleycamper | @shaynebenowitz

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