Gibban

May 15-17, 2013 The time had finally come to leave Spain and head for the French island of Corsica. Here we would be starting our summer cruising around the area we have come to refer to as the mid Mediterranean. We’ve now explored most of what the western med has to offer so now we’re turning our attention to Corsica, Sardinia, the Italian west coast and Sicily. That should keep us busy for a while. We’d been watching the forecasts very carefully looking for the right weather window to make the two day, 240 nautical mile crossing from Mahon on Menorca to Bonifacio on the south eastern tip of Corsica. You have to be very careful as nasty gale force winds can sweep out of France’s Gulf of Lion and blow all the way to Sicily. These Mistral winds are most prevalent in winter but can occur year round and are far from rare in autumn. We looked at five different forecasts and decided that Tuesday, Wednesday looked good while Thursday was OK until later in the night when some strongish winds...

French polish has advanced much in recent years and modern polishes used by professionals can now give a very hard & heat resistant finish when appropriately applied. They’re in some cases, every bit as good as modern lacquers. But also leave that elegant, lustrous and beautiful deep shine that only french polish can achieve. French polish became prominent in the late 1800's of the Victorian era. Also known as Shellac Polish, it was found in the forest regions of India and Thailand. It is a secretion of resin from the Lac insect, Coccus Lacca. The female Lac insect sticks its teeth into the branches and bark of trees, which releases a secretion of resin from the tree to cover its whole body and secure itself in place on the tree. When the secretion is harvested or removed it often contains the bug itself and is known as Seedlac. When removed, Seedlac is very brittle & flaky and normally comes in two different colours, Orange Bysaki & Blonde Kushmii. During production, t...