Swallow's adventures

On 3rd July 2018 we ventured to the island of Levanzo, one of the Egadi Islands, just off the north western coast of Sicily; there was a morning mist over Mount San Giuliano. After radioing Trapani VTS to depart at 1000 we had a fantastic starboard close reach past the tiny Isole Maraone and Isole Formica, the latter of which has a tuna factory. A ferry sped up behind us and we had a hydrofoil heading straight for us; this, coupled with the fact that there were pot buoys everywhere, meant that our nice balanced sail was interrupted!

These islands are a marine reserve run by AMP. There are plenty of buoys for use and you have to buy a permit to use them on the three main islands; we dropped the main sail at Cala Fredda and tied up to one of these orange buoys; the friendly AMP guys came along in their dinghy and charged us €105 for a week, they told us that, as were under 10m, we were also allowed to anchor in certain areas free of charge. You always feel a bit safer on a buoy not having to worry if your anchor might drag; however we did see some strange practices by the Italians, such as a yacht anchoring next to us a few feet from a buoy, a disaster waiting to happen, not to mention the fact that they were damaging the protected grasses! They saw sense once I gave them my ‘what on earth do you think you’re doing’ stare! We went ashore and walked around to the little hamlet which consisted of a small convenience store, a restaurant, a bakery, a clothes shop, a post office, a doctor, and one church; there was a small harbour where the car ferry comes in from Trapani. We then walked the other way, through cypress trees along the shore, to the next cala; such a pretty little island. The next morning the cala became very rolly as the wind changed so we were off!

We sailed to the furthest west island of Marettimo; this was a good F3/4 broad reach with 1m troughs. It all got a bit crazy on our approach with 28k of wind! We took a buoy at Cala Conca in the south as strong northerlies were predicted. It was Mother Nature at her best here: the sheer rocky cliffs were very sparse with clusters of bright green and yellow vegetation such as lichen; the 200m high rock, which has been forced up over the years by seismic activity, is laminated in multi-coloured layers, some diagonal and some parallel to the sea. We enjoyed a relaxing swim in the bright blue water and floated about soaking up the view and listening to the birds. The evening brought 20 knots of wind with 30 knot gusts; our wind scoop was on overdrive, the sun cover was in danger of flying away and the dinghy kept flipping over! Swallow repeatedly surged forward and kept bashing into the buoy; Paul’s attempts to adjust the lines by torchlight were futile. The noise was horrendous, hence another sleepless night! We had thought that a southerly bay would be protected in strong northerlies but the wind came across the island, poured over the edge of the cliffs and funnelled down on top of us, giving us a sharp, hard punch! As I watched the sunrise the winds calmed down a little; we decided to move one and a half miles around the south eastern tip of the island to Finocchio, hoping for more shelter. We hooked up a buoy and quickly realised that we had picked up some rope around our propeller, we’d have to deal with that once the swell had calmed down. Paul swung the boom out and hung his flopper stopper over the side; in case any of you are now having awful images in your head I must explain that a flopper stopper is a device to limit the rolling of a boat at anchor, using resistance; in Palermo he had some steel cut into an equilateral triangle and weighted one end with an old anode. This was fairly effective with a slight wind which held us into the swell, the true test will be a totally windless day when a slight ripple enters the bay and hits us beam on, Swallow loves this violent rocking but we obviously find it totally intolerable and usually end up wanting to sell her and go home! After a couple of hours I noticed that the motor boat in front of us was getting very close to us; we quickly realised that the flopper stopper had caught the chain of the mooring buoy and was dragging it down the side of the boat, making us kite forward; Paul got in the water and pulled the stopper back over the chain whilst I pulled the buoy tightly towards the boat, another crisis averted!

It’s now day four into Swallow’s Egadi adventure and the sleepless crew are very snappy! We cat-napped in the breezy shade of the sun cover listening to the wind howling, the waves rushing on to the shore of the tiny pebble beach and the squawking seagulls; Swallow was bouncing around and the burning sun created jewels sparkling on the bright azure sea. I’m looking up at the clear blue sky and the cliffs with their nooks and crannies, caves and loose rocks; this is a peaceful haven during the day but at night can seem a very dark, scary place ,especially when the winds are gale force. I’m reminding myself that nature is a very powerful source, not to be underestimated, the wind and sea can be relentlessly cruel and unforgiving at times. The AMP guys came along and advised us to stay put for a couple of days and wait for the swell to die down; we couldn’t go anywhere anyway until we’d cut the entangled rope free! They told us that a couple of years ago high winds had brought down some of the cliff in front of where we were moored- eek!!

The next morning the sea was still too rolly to go ashore or even swim; two other yachts came in and had real difficulties securing to the buoys. Everything calmed down the following day and so Paul braved the windblown tiny black jelly fish infested waters so that he could dive down and free the rope from the propeller; he bumped his head on the hull on his way back up! At last we could escape Maretimmo, I don’t think our bodies could have taken another night of being thrown around. We set a course for Favignana, the largest of the islands; there was a very light north westerly wind so we motor sailed on a port beam reach, after an hour we were able to turn off the engine, we looked back at Maretimmo and thought how inviting it looked but I don’t think we’ll be rushing back any time soon!

There are many mooring fields around Favignana but we chose the southern side as the winds were predicted to stay northerly; we tied up in Punta Lunga. This time we went alongside the buoy to pick it up, which we found much easier than trying to grab it from the bow. Engine off and RELAX! This was a Sunday in July and so the bay was crammed with Italian motorboats on a day out from the mainland; once the evening came they’d all gone and it was so peaceful and still, yes it was finally still, we knew we’d sleep well tonight. We stayed three nights on the buoy; our week’s permit had now expired so we moved just around the corner and anchored for a couple of nights. This is a beautiful island but full of tourists at this time of year. A mountainous ridge, Montagna Grossa, runs from North to South and from the bay you can see an Arogonese fort at the top. Finding somewhere to tie up the dinghy was a bit of a challenge but we eventually spotted a little slip way on the peninsular. It took us about 15 minutes to stroll into the lively little town; here we found lots of lovely little gift shops and of course many eateries, gelateries and bakeries offering arancini with every flavour imaginable , mouth-watering gelato and an abundance of little cakes adorned with pistachio nuts. There is an old tuna factory here where tuna was once processed and canned, here you can learn about how they used to catch the large tuna in the nets attached to the sea bed by massive anchors, which are now lying on the foreshore. Many people hire bikes here to see the rest of what the island has to offer. Next we will be heading south back to Sicily.