SICILY

For the first time in a long time we seemed to be blessed with good weather.

24 hour outlook : Force 5 Beaufort SW turning W

72 hour outlook : Force 5 Beaufort W turning SW.

Departure was therefore at 11.00 am. An hour ahead of Fear of Flying (that was the handicap we agreed with for our little ”race” to Sicily) and with a crew of 3 – Mark, Vicki and Per we set our course around Capo Carbonara and towards the 3 little islands that lie apprx. 10 nautical miles west of Sicily and 150 nautical miles ahead of Sunray.

The wind was just a little more than we had expected but Sunray could cope easily with it.  In a Force 6 (12-14 metres/second) we surfed away over the waves which were about 2 metres high with an average speed of 7 knots !! Fantastic – faster than we hoped for!

 Unfortunately the wind disappeared at dusk and we had to start the engine again.  Vicki spoilt us with warm lasagne and steaming coffee to keep us going through the night.

At around 2.00 am we had an experience of a lifetime!

For several hours we had been hearing over the VHF Thunderstorm warnings for the area we were sailing in, and the thunderstorm came in the middle of the night.

The sky which until now was totally covered in stars suddenly went totally blak and we could not see anything for the huge thunderclouds over us.  Although the wind was pretty weak, we decided to reef the main sail and roll in half of the jib (sail in the front) – one can never tell what this storm could bring – either strong winds or nothing at all

It turned out to be nothing at all: no wind but an electric storm that we had never seen like it before.  Every 5 seconds for the next 3 hours the sky was lit up with huge sheet lightnings.  There was never any forked lightning and never any thunder just this wonderful display of lights over a totally empty sea.

We were heading SW and the storm was heading NE so the stars came out again for a short while before dawn and later a sunny clear day.  At around 7.00am we could see Isola Marettimo in the distance, the first and closest of the Egadi Islands with its 650 metre high mountain and at exactly 10.00am we sailed into the little fishing harbour of Isola Favigna on Sicily’s west coast.

Exactly 150 nautical miles in 23 hours, its only a boat like ”Nokia” (a really fast sailboat) that can beat that record!

The first thing we did was enjoy a full fry up brunch and then a nap on deck in the warm morning sun. (Fear of Flying arrived 40 minutes later – SO WE WON THE RACE!)

Both crews thought this was a special event so we agreed to go out to a local restaurant (TV, plastic chairs and neonlights) to celebrate and we ended the evening with coffee, cognac and Averna in a pavement cafe – 26 degrees and still in shorts and t-shirts.

Wine, beer, cognac and Averna all make for a good party and at around 2.00 am when ”someone” whose name we won’t mention decided it could be possible to walk tightrope over the lines tied from the boat to the other end of the harbour, most of us ended in the water, fully clothed, to the great amusement of the ones who did not join in and to a lot of shaking heads from the people still walking around the harbour!

That was a good day, and now we are almost home to Malta!

Next day we said goodbye to Mark and the crew of Fear of Flying.  They will sail faster to Malta while we want to see a little bit more of Sicily.  We set course 10 nautical miles north to Trapani.

We have arrived to the back door of Europe and the front door of Africa.  There are so many strange people, places, noise and smells.  We were so impressed by all this, and a little bit nervous about rumours of stealing from yachts that we decided not to moor in the yacht harbour which was a little bit out of the way but instead we pushed ourselves in between the Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza boats !   Behind a steel fence and with boats with machine guns and canons on board we felt a bit safer!

”Let’s take the chance” we said to each other as we next day got onto a bus to visit Erice which is an old town / citadel on the mountains above Trapani.  Erice has been inhabited by a number of different people/races and even a number of gods from Greek and Roman mythology.

Next day we set off to Marsala where we should celebrate Per’s birthday.  As usual Vicki used her charm to get talking to the Harbour Master and ended up with an adress of his ”friend” who had the perfect little restaurant for us to enjoy our dinner.  Up on the old rusty bicycles we could loan from the harbour, we cycled in our best clothes first for a little ”passeggiata” in town whch turned out to be quite a pretty and lively place and then to the restaurant  which was just what we wanted – the owner even turned off the sound of the 24 inch colour tv that was hanging up on the wall. We were told by the Harbour Master to speak to the chef and mention that we were his ”friends”.  The chef turned out to be the Swedish cook from the Muppet Show, the only difference being that he spoke Siciliy instead of ”hurdy gurdy”, complete with white chef’s hat bobbing up and down.  He gave us a fantastic meal of fresh pasta with pesto and prawns, spaghetti alla ”bottarga” dried grated tunafish eggs, followed by swordfish steamed with tomatoes and capers, lemon sorbet and lovely cold local white wine.  Of course we were forced a glass of sickly sweet Marsala wine at the end of the meal too.

We left Marsala towards our next port, Mazara del Vallo – which boasts being the largest trawler port in Italy.  But by now we have understood that the trawlers they talk about are dirty, smelly rusty old things leaking oil and fish gunge into the dirty sewage filled harbour.  Well, if the harbour is so big we must be able to find a place – oh if only life could be so simple !!  We entered the harbour and headed towards the yacht berths – there was no room for us there.  Onwards to the other side of the port where we could see another yacht berthed and a totally empty pontoon (empty? - are we in Sardinia??) .  We were still a good 100 metres away from the pontoon when a wild haired old man shot out of his little cabin shouting at us and waving us away.  We didn’t need to understand Italian or Sicilian to understand that he didn’t want us here but was showing us to go further into the harbour or up the ”river” as the case may be where there was a new pontoon for us to tie up to.  OK, we don’t really like your little pontoon you old fool, so we sailed into the river of sewage lined with rust buckets of trawlers on either side.  Sure enough we found the brand new concrete mooring site, and there were no boats there either. We tied up as far away from the sewage hole as possible, looked at each other and burst out laughing – we both had the same thoughts in our heads – this is a far cry from Porto Cervo !!  Suddenly out of nowhere at least 30 men appeared, looking suspiciously at our shiny lovely Sunray, which looked so totally out of place.  Per pushed me forward to ask them if it was ok to stay here.  No, no, no, the fishing boats are arriving now.  You cannot stay here!   So we had to uproot ourselves again and brace ourselves for the wrath of the troll of the empty pontoons in the outer harbour.  With ropes at the ready I jumped onto his pontoon, once again he came out screeching, snatched the lines out of my hands and literally pushed me and the boat out.   What’s going on here??  We sailed over like some unwanted refugees to where the other yachts were moored and finally found a good soul who let us use a place that belonged to another boat but was at Trapani right now.  Later on we were visited by the owner of the mooring place too along with a few more suspicious looking characters.  He told us it was fine to stay here but warned us to lock up the boat before going ashore.  We felt pretty safe though, because we were moored right next to the Carabinieri once again .  Out came our folding bicycles and we set off to explore the ”town”.   Dirty stray dogs wandering around the dusty empty streets, kids in scruffy clothes playing in the streets, men sitting in small groups in dark little bars, and stickers on all the shop windows declaring ”This site is protected by SicilPol”, policemen outside banks holding machine guns which they would use at the drop of a hat – need I say more – welcome to Sicily – Mafia Country!

Back to the boat long before dark, close all the windows, lock the door and hope for better weather next day – that’s all there was to do.

No such luck, the wind decided to get stronger and was blowing a gale from SE right where we wanted to go.  There was no doubt about it, we had to spend another day in Mazara del Vallo.  We spent the day huddled under the shelter of the sprayhood and read our books.  The highlight of the day was a short walk up to the Supermarket for provisions, where we found the bargain of the day a bottle of Scotch for LiT. 9,000  J.

Set off next day to Sciacca.  I’ll just give you a quotation from our Pilot, that will give you the picture: ”from a distance the town is enchanting …… on closer inspection, squalid and the alleys and steps strewn with garbage.” and it goes on to say ”Nonetheless this is one of the prettiest towns along the coast..”.   There’s not much more to say about this place, it was a smelly and dirty as the place before that and the one before that again.  

Ever since we arrived in Sicily we have been talking about leaving the boat – IF we find a safe harbour, and hiring a car to go inland and see more of the island.  Hopefully our next harbour will be the one.    We also wanted to visit Agrigento and the ”Valley of Temples” so we stopped in Porto Empedocle which lies just below the town of Agrigento.  

Porto Empedocle is cleaner than any other harbour we have yet visited.  The two pleasure boat pontoons are guarded day and night by two friendly ”ormeggiatori” – Giuseppe and Salvatore.  We felt safe enough to leave Sunray in there care and hire a car.   No sooner had we mentioned this to our friendly ”guards” when they said they could provide us with a ”privately” hired car.  OK if your price can better that of AVIS we’d be interested.  A couple of muttered phone calls later on the mobile and what seemed like Don Corleone himself arrived to deal with us.   An elderly man, in smart trousers, shirt and tie, dark heavy glasses, smart little black leather shoes and complete with a white straw hat!!   After a short exchange we decided his price was too high and we could thankfully go back to dear, safe AVIS for our car.  There was no bargaining, that was his price take it or leave it ”my friend”.    I promise you, as he was leaving and saying goodbye, I swear I heard him saying ”Bacio le mani” – arrgghh I don’t want a horse’s head in my bed tonight!!
A 20 minute bus ride into Agrigento to collect our car and we were ready for our adventures in Sicily.  Our first stop was the Valley of Temples.  The city of Agrigento was founded by the Greeks of Gela together with others from Crete and Rhodes in 580 BC.  The original name is ”Akragas” meaning summit and earth, and  it was probably a trading station.    The Temple of Concord, Temple of Juno  are very well preserved and almost totally complete.  They are magnificent and  in no way inferior to the ones that can be seen in Greece, well worth visiting.  From here we drove inland to Enna.  The landscape here was totally unlike anything we have seen before, rounded hills and mountains that would have looked at home on the moon.  The land seems to be all clay and therefore grey which gives it this moonscape feeling.  Enna is described as the geometrical centre of Sicily and placed as it is at the top of a mountain is also known as ”the balcony of Sicily”.   The views from here were stupendous, and we could even see the top of Etna, a black cone sitting on top of a blanket of white clouds.

It was late afternoon by now so we decided that Etna should wait till the following day and instead drive on to Taormina, find a little hotel and go and enjoy the night life there.  Taormina is the prettiest town in Sicily and the most popular with tourists.  Its main street, Corso Umberto is lined with souvenir shops selling the colourful sicilian ceramics, designer shops, pavement cafes and ”pasticcerie”  offering all kinds of delicacies such as ”cannoli siciliani” and hundreds of different flavours of icecreams and sorbets.

We had dinner at Granduca, a simple pizza and a bottle of wine, but in the most romantic setting one could imagine – a garden restaurant with a view overlooking the whole bay of Taormina, candelight and the full moon shining over a sea which was as flat and calm as a mirror. 

Next day we set off bright and early, eager to see Etna.  We drove up to Rifugio Sapienza, 1910 m. up the mountain, but had to stop there with the car.  Just 2 months ago Etna erupted and destroyed the rest of the road!  We walked over lava that was still warm, in some places too warm to touch, to the off road jeeps that take tourists up to the top and principal crater.  However once again due to the recent eruption, the track used by these jeeps was destroyed and a new crater at 2,500 m altitude also destroyed the ski lifts, cabin and pistes.  The guide took us up on foot to view the new crater.  We walked approximately one hour over lava, that had only just recently cooled.  There is absolutely nothing to see except black black rocks and black dust.  Once again we had that feeling of being on the moon.   At the crater, the guide took a stick of wood and just stuck it in a crack in the hot lava and it simply caught fire – it seems incredible.  As you look over the crater you can see the heat waves shimmering against the skies, and just beyond is a ”new” mountain that is not even charted yet – it was created in 3 days during the latest eruptions in August.   It was a shame that we could not travel the further 1,000 m up to the principal crater, the cranes and bulldozers were working overtime to fix the part of that part of the road and in a month or so it should be ready again.   

Well, that was the end of our tour of Sicily.  Time to head back to Porto Empedocle and see if Sunray is still in one piece now.   We drove back to Agrigento, handed back the car and after a quick espresso and ”cannolo” caught the bus back home, and eagerly looking out of the bus windows as we drove past the port we noticed that the mast was still there – Sunray is safe!  Didn’t Don Corleone and his Mob like our boat?