Emerald Tales

Currently sailing the eastern Atlantic visiting Maderia, the Canary Islands and the Azores

26 August 2024 | Terceira, Azores
18 August 2024 | Sao Louenco Bay, Santa Maria Island
08 August 2024 | Santa Marina, Azores
13 July 2024 | Santa Maria, Azores
22 March 2024 | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
01 March 2024 | Porto Santo
23 February 2024 | Porto Santo
22 January 2024 | Madeira
15 December 2023 | Porto Santo
13 October 2023 | Porto Santo
15 September 2023 | Porto Santo
09 August 2023 | Porto Santo, Madeira
28 July 2023 | Porto Santo, Madeira
23 June 2023 | Porto Santo
15 January 2023 | Porto Santo

Walking up mountains in the midday sun

02 September 2014 | Isola Favignana, Sicily
Nichola / calm before the storm
The anchorage west of Punta Longa

We're anchored off Isola Favignana, the largest of the Egadi islands off the west of Sicily. The island's prosperity came from tuna fishing; the positioning of the islands allowed the tuna to be herded into fish traps set off the main harbour held down by rows of enormous anchors. The tuna were then dispatched to the island's tonnara factory, once the biggest cannery in all of Europe. The arrival of factory fishing doomed both the tuna and the island's tuna business; as the number of tuna rapidly declined and the factory closed in the 1980's. Now it is a museum and the island's prosperity comes from tourism with a continuous stream of ferries bringing people over from Sicily.

Favignana
Scenes from Favignana

The island has a very relaxed air about it, more bicycles than cars and happy, smiley people. Yes it's touristy in the town with shops selling local delicacies at inflated prices and the beer is eye wateringly expensive in the bars. But the ice cream is good value and very, very tasty. We also tried our first cannoli - a sort of biscuity tube filled with sweet ricotta cheese. I think my waist line may be in danger of expansion over the coming winter with all the lovely Italian food on offer.

To burn off the calories we walked up the 314 meters to the disused fort of Santa Caterina on the highest point of Favignana. The crazy paved path zig zags it's way up the hill, although in some places it seems they couldn't be bothered with the zig zags and decided straight up was best. No shade either so it was with relief to find a cooling breeze when we finally reached the top after nearly an hour of up. The fort that remains is 500 or so years old and was most recently used by the Italian navy, we guess as a listening and signal post from the equipment left behind. It is free to wander around amongst the debris - old radio equipment, bed frames, bathrooms and a kitchen amongst the recognisable remains. We had to watch our step as it was gloomy inside with broken bottles, rusty pipes and unseen holes waiting to snag us. There are no barriers, no warning signs, in fact we were free to wander everywhere although the gaping hole under a set of stone steps put us off going up them. Up on the roof the views were amazing across the island chain and over to Sicily.

Santa Caterina
The fort of Santa Caterina

The anchorage is to the west of a little spit of land called Punta Longa. The seabed is rocky with patches of sand sitting in canyons amongst the rocks. We had to move from our first patch of sand because to the east was a lump of rock that had less than 2m clearance. With strong westerly winds due we'd have swung that way and clonked our keel or ever worse the rudder. Our hand held depth gauge has been really useful for surveying our swing area.

In the afternoons the locals arrive in their RIBs and power boats and raft up - a 9 raft is the biggest we've seen so far. By early evening they've all gone home. It all seems very sociable and yesterday the people on the RIB next to us called us over, gave us some Marsala wine and amaretto biscuits to try and ended up giving us the remainder of the bottle. What a fantastic welcome to Sicily!

Comments
Vessel Name: Emerald
Vessel Make/Model: Kelly Peterson 44
Hailing Port: No fixed abode
Crew: Colin 'Skip' Wright, Nichola Wright
About: One from Northern Ireland, one from Yorkshire, UK
Extra: Emerald has been our home since 2004. We've sailed around the UK, the western Baltic and have spent 7 years in the Med. We're currently in Portugal, planning a refit. Lot's more information about us and the boat can be found at www.yachtemerald.com
Home Page: https://www.yachtemerald.com/
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