Mouillage

Grande Sanguinaire

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Shelter: E, SE, S
Seabed: rock
Anchoring: Allowed

Rocky anchorage off Mezzu Mare, the largest of the Sanguinaires islands at the mouth of the Gulf of Ajaccio, western Corsica.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Approach from the east from the Ajaccio fairway. The archipelago is a Natura 2000 site and the seabed is rocky with Posidonia meadows; anchoring on Posidonia is prohibited and must be avoided. Shelter from E, SE and S only. The anchorage is exposed to the libeccio from the SW and the mistral funnelling down the Gulf.

Practical

No facilities on the island. Port Tino Rossi in Ajaccio lies 7.1 NM to the E as the main refuge. Mezzu Mare is uninhabited apart from the lighthouse and the semaphore, no water, no shops.

Ashore

Landing on Mezzu Mare by tender gives access to the path up to the 19th-century Sanguinaires lighthouse, about 80 m above sea level, and the old Genoese tower. The island inspired Alphonse Daudet, who wrote one of the tales of the Lettres de mon moulin about the lighthouse keepers here.

History

Alphonse Daudet stayed at the lighthouse in 1863 and used it as the setting for Le Phare des Sanguinaires, published in 1869 as part of the Lettres de mon moulin.