La Campanina

La Campanina is an offshore reef rising from sand off the seaward tip of the Punta di Sette Nave and Isolella peninsula, which forms the southern shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio. The strongest exposure comes through a west-southwest window: the Libeccio (SW) and W-to-WSW swell run straight in off the open Tyrrhenian and onto the upper rock, with the SW-through-W sectors the most open. Toward the northwest that window closes off quickly, and the peninsula and the higher ground on the north shore of the gulf shadow the NW and northern sectors, while the body of the Isolella peninsula and the Pietrosella coast to the east and southeast shade the landward directions and largely block the Scirocco (SE). This is a comparatively swell-exposed stretch of the Corsican west coast, and in a fresh Libeccio or westerly the surface turns choppy and the cave amplifies surge.