Anchorage

Plage de Nonza

Shelter: NE, E, SE
Seabed: sand, rock
Anchoring: Allowed

Open roadstead on the west coast of Cap Corse, below the village of Nonza. Long grey-pebble beach, sand and rock bottom.

Beach

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Approach from the west, keeping well off the shoreline where underwater rocks extend from the cliff base. Drop the hook on sand in 6 to 10 metres, avoiding the rocky patches. Shelter from NE, E and SE. Fully exposed to the libeccio from the west and south-west, which kicks up a heavy swell.

Ashore

The village of Nonza sits 150 metres above the beach on a basalt cliff, reached by a stepped path of about 700 steps. Paoline tower from the 16th century tops the headland. Sainte-Julie parish church, built in 1713, holds a marble altar and an 18th-century chasuble. Small grocery, bakery and two cafés in the village square.

History

The dark grey pebbles come from asbestos tailings dumped by the Canari mine, about 10 km north of the beach, which operated from 1948 to 1965 and left roughly eleven million tonnes of waste on the coast. The original Nonza sand was buried by the spoil.