Anchorage

Anse de Portu Provençale

Shelter: NE, E, SE
Seabed: sand
Anchoring: Forbidden

Mooring field on buoys in the Gulf of Ajaccio, 4.9 NM NW of Port Charles Ornano, western Corsica.

Mooring buoys
Beach

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Approach from the south across the Gulf of Ajaccio. Sand bottom with 31 buoys and shelter from NE through SE, exposed to the SW libeccio which builds quickly across the gulf, and a west swell works in even in calm weather. A swimming and beach zone reaches out about 300 metres, so anchoring is only outside it in 13 to 15 metres, and a warden may come out to move a boat onto a paid buoy even beyond the limit. Earlier in the season, before the buoys are laid, boats can anchor closer in 5 to 6 metres. No VHF watch on the mooring field.

Practical

No services on site. The buoys are bookable through resaportcorse.com at around 50 euros a night, and the VHF and phone are often unanswered, so reserve ahead. Land the tender on the beach, where there are bins up the hill behind the restaurants. Fuel, water and full facilities at Port Charles Ornano in Ajaccio, 4.9 NM SE.

Ashore

Two restaurants sit behind the beach, one of them the Stella Di Lava, serving fresh fish and burgers. A submerged aircraft wreck lies by the third buoy in the beach-access channel and can be snorkelled. The Sentier des Crêtes and the Tours Génoises of the Sanguinaires peninsula are accessible from the western shore of the gulf. Ajaccio old town and the Maison Bonaparte, birthplace of Napoléon in 1769, are reachable from Port Charles Ornano.