A Sicilian Summer 2018 Part One
12 January 2019 | Sicily
Carole Young
CEFALU
At 0700 on 2nd June 2018 Swallow weighed her anchor in the brilliant sunshine and said goodbye to the beautiful Aeolian Islands which, in a month’s time, would be swamped with visitors. We set off for Sicily; our first stop is Cefalu, 52 miles away on the north coast; there was not a soul in sight, not even a bird. Two hours into our passage we were delighted to welcome around 25 dolphins joyfully playing around us. The main sail was flogging due to the almost non-existent easterly wind so we lowered it and suffered the side to side rolling caused by the sloppy sea! Later, with only 2 miles to go, the genoa filled giving us a great downwind sail. We set the anchor in 6m of water in the old harbour of Cefalu, we were mindful of staying 300m off shore as we had read that authorities are pretty hot on the rules around here; a picturesque sight of the old town and golden, sandy beach. This anchorage gave us a really uncomfortable, rolly, sleepless night so, at daybreak, we motored back around the corner to the new harbour which, although further away from the town, would offer us better shelter. This was such a relaxing spot with the backdrop of a ginormous, craggy rock- apparently a great walk to the top to see Diana’s Temple but it was way too hot for that thank you very much! We enjoyed a wonderful few days in this peaceful spot, with bird song being the predominate sound; Captain Paul treated Swallow to a bit of a scrub whilst we were swimming. Cefalu is a quaint old town, we took a stroll and visited the fantastic Norman cathedral decorated with beautiful mosaics; we also came across the medieval wash house where the villagers washed their clothes. I tried my first arancini, filled with aubergine, mouth-watering!
PALERMO
Four days later we moved along the lush, green, hilly coastline; after 15 miles of a good downwind sail we decided to break our passage towards Palermo by stopping to anchor at Termini Immerse. Bad mistake! We had another intolerable night of violent rolling. At 0800 the next morning we hot footed out into a light headwind for a 20 mile motor sail to Palermo for what was to be an unplanned stay of 14 days. I’d previously contacted Ben at SiTiMar Marina for a price (I’ve learnt that it’s always best to pre negotiate in Italy before you arrive); Ben was extremely helpful and friendly and leading up to our arrival we kept in touch by Whattsapp which seems to be the norm here, much more casual than dealing with marinas in France and Spain. Once inside the sheltered Cala, a 3000 year old Phoenician harbour, we sat down with Ben and finalised our ‘deal’ over a coffee- “my coffee bar is always open” explained an overworked, but cheerful Ben. This small, safe marina has good security with one unisex shower which is adequately clean and, best of all, we are right next to the town. Electricity and water, which is obviously not a luxury at anchor, was included in our price so we immediately went into a long overdue cleaning frenzy of Swallow, inside and out.
On our first evening stroll I made it my mission to locate a laundrette for the following morning; we were delighted to stumble across a Lidl and stocked up on digestives- it’s the small things! On our way back we found a lively bar, next to an Arabic looking church, with a great atmosphere. I enjoyed a well-deserved glass of Prosecco and decided I was definitely going to like Palermo very much; in fact we both fell in love with this tired but magical, vibrant, multicultural city. Paul, as is in most of the marinas we have been to, got chatting to a local, Giuseppe who visited his boat most days; they became great friends and we had a typically Sicilian evening out with him and his wife Elise, who is a ballerina at the Teatro Massimo; Elise does not speak much English and my understanding of Italian was still very much under construction, so we got by in schoolgirl French! They invited us into their beautiful home, overlooking a 12th century church, and told us a lot about Palermo; we have found the Italians to be fantastic hosts but here they welcome you with a real Palermo passion!
We saw so much, but not enough, of this city in the two weeks that we spent tied up. You learn to see past the overflowing rubbish bins and very dilapidated buildings in this constantly alive city. There are several daily, very noisy, markets here, which are the hubs of activity. The main ones are Capo, Ballaro (my favourite) and Vucciria (meaning screaming!); fresh produce is in abundance, there are colourful, well presented displays of: fresh fruit (including juicy flat peaches, and gigantic watermelons) and vegetables (shiny, plump aubergines for the Pasta Norme), dried fruits and nuts, olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, dried beans, cheese, sausages, hams, various meats, fresh fish and shellfish, salted sardines, chilli plants, spices and fresh tomato paste; it’s a Jamie Oliver’s dream! There are also certain areas with stalls offering household goods, vibrant fabrics and Indian garments. This is a crazy shopping experience; chain smoking stall holders are all shouting or standing on tables, bearing large knives, ready to hack chunks off very large, and hence very old, tuna; old ladies are shoving past you- no queuing here, mopeds are coming at you from all directions, the aroma of street food is enticing you to try arancini (fried rice balls filled with various vegetables, cheese or meat), fried calamari, chickpea fritters or spleen sandwiches- no we didn’t try these! Eating inexpensive street food is a long practised tradition all over Palermo; this is a real ‘foodie’ city, the cakes, biscuits, marzipan fruits and deserts are yummy and the pistachio gelato is the best I have ever tasted! You can even have an ice-cream sandwich, gelato in a brioche bun. It’s not just about pizza in Sicilly, historically, much of the food has been influenced by North Africa, Greece and Turkey. Much to Paul’s delight, we even found onion bhajis and giant samosas. We met up with friends from Gaeta in Kalsa, the ancient Arabic district, and devoured a delicious, cheap meal of grilled fresh fish, pasta sarde and paste norme (aubergines) and plenty of vino! We were definitely in food heaven.
Of course this capital city of Sicily has much more to offer other than food; it is steeped in history with countless magnificent buildings. We visited the 12th century cathedral, many churches, fountains, the Quattro Canti, the antique market area and the botanical gardens; we even found the oriental quarter which was lined with Chinese shops selling every household item imaginable. The most bizarre place we visited was the Cappuccini Catacombs; these macabre catacombs are lined with dressed, desiccated bodies hanging up on display; it was hard to comprehend that these were actual bodies, it was like a film set and I was a bit worried if one might fall down on us! The most moving body was that of Rosalia Lombardo, a two year old girl who died in 1920, she was probably the last body to be placed there, she looked beautiful, simply asleep; as weird as it sounds I can fully understand that her mother would want to come and visit her and remember her exactly how she was.
CASTELLAMMARE DEL GOLFO
Two weeks later the winds became more favourable for sailing west so we reluctantly decided that we should move on; we also knew that our bank balance couldn’t withhold staying here any longer as, although the city was cheap compared to the rest of Italy, the marina was fairly expensive at €45 per night, which would increase in July and August; we spent a month’s budget here, but, hey, you only live once! The day we were due to leave we had engine trouble; luckily, after a lengthy telephone conversation with Drew (our trusted friend and Ground Control in the UK), Paul managed to get us up and running again; we learnt from this experience: the fine fuel filter should be checked more regularly in Mediterranean waters! Oh well, looks like we’re really leaving this time. So on 20 June 2018 Swallow continued her adventure around Sicily; it was great to be back at sea, we’ve been ‘quayside boys’ for too long; we sat back and admired the stunning cliffs and sandy shore. Three hours later we tried anchoring at Mondello Beach but, guess what, it was too rolly! So we backtracked 10 miles to Arenella and enjoyed a peaceful, free, night’s sleep. The next morning we fuelled up and set off for Castellammare del Golfo, 32 miles away, a good anchorage according to Giuseppe. The scenery along here is spectacular, there were a few large boulders at the water’s edge, I wouldn’t have wanted to be sat there when they came tumbling down! The sheer craggy cliffs look like they’ve had a vertical slice cut out of them; the green sloping hills are littered with fallen rocks and houses are precariously placed along the bottom. We rounded Capo Gallo, a striking point of a huge sandstone rock saying ‘don’t come near me’; the wind was strong around this tip and the rock, interlaced with nooks and crannies and greenery, rose aggressively from the sea up towards the heavens. The colours were so distinctive through my polarised sunglasses. This partly protected area of bright blue rippling sea is marked with yellow St Andrews crosses. We sailed around the outside of the uninhabited Isola delle Femmine, once used to house women and children to escape disease in Sicily. We proceeded past the airport where there were lots of fishing floats made out of detergent bottles and posts keeping us away from the flight path. We arrived at 17.30 and anchored behind the new breakwater; today we felt we had our sea legs back. Strong northerlies dictated that we would have to stay here for 9 days; Giuseppe was right, the shelter here was fantastic. Here we took the dinghy ashore a few times and ventured into town, a charming place, with Mount Inice rising above it, offering trendy bars and restaurants, an expensive craft ale pub, the usual greengrocers and butchers and useful supermarkets. On Paul’s birthday he treated himself to an Italian haircut; I observed this highly skilled young man using two different sets of clippers, a cut throat razor and scissors, perfetto! After enjoying gelato and looking around the church we witnessed a ‘Godfather’ style funeral procession with a brass band.
We used our time on board here wisely -planning for cruising the Egadi Islands, Paul did some sketching, I had a go at painting with guaches (don’t think I’m destined to be an artist), we caught up on Madmen, watched England play Belgium in the World Cup and chatted to our friends and families and most importantly, updated our log book! As the pilot book advised to be careful of building debris on the sea bed we put a trip line out with a bright orange buoy; we were highly amused one afternoon when a training yacht tried to moor up to it!
SAN VITO LO CAPO
Well it was a good job that we used the trip line at Castellammare as we had a fishing line wrapped around our anchor, at least Paul now has a new lead fishing weight. On our way to round Capo San Vito we had a F3/4 broad reach with the engine in tick over as a precaution in case of heavy gusts; apparently the winds here can pour down the mountains. Later we had a great beam reach with no engine. We booked ahead here but as we entered another concession tried to poach us; this often happens in Italy usually resulting in a lot of shouting and arm waving. Our marinaro came running up the pontoon dangling a squid he had just caught; this had to go in the fridge before he could check us in! There was quite a swell here and a lot of snatching of our lines so we didn’t sleep too well. San Vito has a paradisiacal beach, with pink and white sand, and there is a soft carpet of Poseidon grass along the shore. There is a strong Arabic influence here with many cous cous restaurants in the lively town.
TRAPANI
On 1st July 2018 the marina manager at San Vito took a line for us to keep us straight and away from the laid mooring lines as we reversed out of the berth; there was a bit of wind and Swallow, being a long keel, doesn’t like going backwards at the best of times. Of course the wind quickly died down and so we set off with just the main up and a slow downwind motor sail; we sat back and enjoyed the view of the beautiful hilly coastline; two baby dolphins made a brief appearance. Paul had his fishing rod for a while and once he had reeled it in we spotted tuna jumping and chasing the small fish! With only a few miles to go we were approaching the north western tip of Sicily and the wind indicator was reading a big fat zero! The sea became extremely bouncy around the point and on hindsight we should have stayed further out away from the shallows; it was a bit of an assault course of pot buoys, shallows and speed boats as we tried to get round for a south west approach to the harbour. 2 miles before the harbour the wind rose to 12knots, typical! We radioed the port requesting permission to enter, this is mandatory in Trapani, you have to tell them which of the five concessions you will be mooring in; they seemed happy that we had chosen to anchor. There are two extremely sheltered anchorages here, we picked west of the harbour next to the old lighthouse. We secured a spot near a 60ft yacht and put out 25m of chain in 7m of water; little did we know that the yacht had put out 40m. I was just about to prepare dinner, the limoncellos and tonic with basil were already made, Paul had just come out of the shower, cursing about our inefficient shower pump that he needed to change, and we heard a loud whistle- yes, you guessed it, the wind changed and we were about to collide with the big boy yacht! I quickly opened the seacock and the semi naked Captain started the engine and we reset our anchor; panic over. Ooops!!! The two days we were there one of the concessions came out three times to offer us a berth, we politely declined as we were happy here and well protected from the strong southerlies. I had a flash of inspiration whilst here and we stuck insect netting underneath the shower floor to catch my hair and stop it clogging the pump. It was a little too far for us to take the dinghy ashore and I was very disappointed not to able to visit the old village of Erice at the top of the mountain, but, hey, you can’t see everything! Our next stop is Levanzo, one of the Egadi Islands west of here hopefully we’ll get some great sailing.