Cefalau
We were too optimistic about the weather – we thought one night would be enough at Cefalau – unfortunately the wind blew, gale warnings abounded and it even rained. We went and looked at where we had anchored the previous night – it was now in the surf zone! We made the best of it with a walk up to the ruins at the top of the rock on which Cefalau is built. We were stopped half way because of wind and rain – only experience of “health and safety” in Italy. On day two we caught the train back to Palermo and “did” the Royal Palace (including Sicilian Parliament) and the Cathedral. The Royal Palace included a fantastic chapel – totally covered in mosaics – mixture of Arabic, Byzantium and Norman designs.
The “marina” was a pontoon with no facilities. As the wind increased swell worked its way round into the harbour – the pontoon began to start moving – all the yachts started moving and eventually the pontoon was like a Queen Mary pontoon on a windy day – rocking and rolling and waves. When we went to bed it was like being inside some giant noisy machine moving up and down, side to side, jerking and catching as the springs and lazy line creaked and groaned! Not good for sleeping. At 3.00 am I was just about awake when Catherine came to tell us that a Sunsail yacht had just come in and we needed to move our spring. She had seen them circling and the night man from the marina had waved them in. She said they didn’t do a very good job of it and no wonder. The yacht had been out for 20 hours struggling to get to Palermo. The crew all jumped off the yacht – staggered off with their luggage – trying to get a taxi for their flights back to Poland from Palermo and just left the yacht! Apparently conditions had been “terrible” – so maybe we were right to stay!