Katy & Irvin come to stay

In September Katy and Irvin visited and we had a wonderful weekend.

 In the marina and breakfast barbeque is on its way.

Enough sauces for you Katy?!

 Out for a day sail. 

 Back to the marina for the night. Too much wind the next day so we walked round to the lovely little beach just outside the marina - much quieter than the main town beach. 

 Action picture!!

Another day sail on the Monday before they flew home that night.

 A trip in the dinghy from where we were anchored to a deserted beach.

 A rather serious looking game of rummy!

Happy swimmers!

 

 A typical Italian lunch on the boat - delicious!

 Evening light with the crew on board back in the marina.

 

Egadi Islands to Marina di Ragusa

Having spent quite some time in the beautiful Egadi islands, when the wind was right we set off heading east along the south coast of Sicily.

White sails, blue skies

We had some great sailing winds and clear blue skies.

Our first stop was a rather windy night spent at anchor outside Mazzaro del Vallo. From there we continued east to Sciacca where we spent two nights in the marina. We had been at anchor since we left Cefalu about three weeks ago so needed to top up with water and restock the food supplies. 

 The town of Sciacca on the hillside behind the marina

Caravan art!

Maybe all caravans should be decorated like this?

 Next stop was anchored off the beach at Erachlea Minoa. 

From the beach looking out at Serenity anchored in 3.5m - it was very shallow a long way out!

 Trying out Skylark's cruising chute

A little too long for Serenity but worked well in very light wind.

After an overnight anchorage outside Porto Empedocle near Agrigento, we arrived at our destination - Marina di Ragusa. 

Our circumnavigation of Sicily and her islands is complete!!

The Egadi Islands

Situated off the west coast of Sicily, the Egadi Islands comprising Favignana, Levanzo Marettimo and Formica are in a maritime nature reserve. 

The area used to be an important centre for catching and processing tunny (or tuna) fish.  

Favignana

 We couldn't understand what all these huge old anchors were doing stacked up on the beach but a visit to the tunny museum enlightened us.

 Looking across the bay in the main town of Favignana towards the tunny museum. We did try to anchor here at one time but it was very shallow, very busy, underwater rocks and lots of tripper boats going in and out needing turning space - not a good place to be!

 The large boats used for catching the tunny. 

  

Old cans from when the fish was processed here.

 The canning room

 The vats in the ovens where the fish was cooked.

Detail of the old nets

A board showing how the fish were collected into huge nets called "mattanzas". These were laid in the channels between the islands. You can see how those huge anchors we saw on the beach were used to secure the nets.

Here you can see the entire net with many anchors along the sides .

 One of our favourite anchorages on the south coast of Favignana, a short dinghy ride and twenty minute walk across the island to the main town on the north coast.

 Visitors for breakfast!

Levanzo Island

 A beautiful, quiet spot.

 Colourful Levanzo town.

Here we booked a boat trip round to the caves where there were ancient paintings. You could only access the caves via their boat and with a guide.

 We were not allowed to take photos in the cave so these were taken of the information board.
An incredible place! These paintings drawn in charcoal and red ochre  were created in 7000BC.
Here you can clearly see figures representing woman, man and a pig complete with curly tail as well as other animals. To give an idea of scale, the pig was about 10cms snout to tail.

 

 Even older than that were the etchings in stone dating from 12000BC. Strange to be standing, almost touching, something that has been around for so long. Here you see the outline of a bison with fine horns. Amongst other animals there was a beautiful deer with its head turned and its legs showing movement.

In the cave there were also many stalactites and stalagmites. On the outside were strange multicoloured formations.

 The view as we walked across the island into town. This is Montagna Grossa with the Aragonese fort of Sta Caterina on the summit. In 30 degrees we did not venture up here for a closer look!

In classical times the island was known as Aegusa - the Goat island after a description by Odysseus telling of the large number of goats that grazed here. Apparently up until about 100 years ago there were extensive pine forest here but now it is mostly barren and dry. 

Back to Sicily

From Vulcano along the north coast of Sicily

 It is not always blue skies and sunshine! 41 knots of wind in Vulcano - thank goodness for our Rocna anchor. Other boats didn't stay put but luckily we both did.

 Having waited for better weather we set of between Vulcano and Lipari and passed these amazing rock forms rising straight up out of the sea.

After a refuelling stop at St Agata, we arrived in Cefalu where we anchored outside the marina - a lovely spot.

A lovely anchorage looking back at the coastline. 

                                         The evening skies over Cefalu
 

 Flat Tabacchiera (Saturn) peaches - local to Sicily and delicious!

 Leaving Cefalu and heading west. The cathedral on the right was built by King Roger as a thank you for being saved from a shipwreck. 

 Another lovely anchorage outside Ponticello harbour.

 From here,  we walked the two miles into the town of Bagheria and visited the Villa Palagonia - well known for its eccentric statues. Apparently in the 17th century visitors considered it "the most original in the world" and is now known as the Villa of Monsters. There are numerous statues in Aspra tuf adorning the outer walls. These represent imaginery animals, anthropoid figures and other caricatures. 

 The comical statues around the walls

Detail of some of the statues around the walls.

The grand entrance.

  

The walls in the great hall are covered in marble, coloured glass and marble reliefs.

 We spent several days anchored in the entrance to the marina at Castellamare del Gulfo - another beautiful spot.

 From the town looking back down to the anchorage. Serenity is one of the five boats anchored in the centre of this photo.

 A strange tree spotted in the town. If you zoom in you will see that the trunk is covered in thorns - very strange!

 The walls along the steps down to the harbour are decorated with tiles from many Rotary clubs.

 Dave's "bright idea" moment!

Actually a wonderful meal of seafood risotto on the wall above the harbour entrance.

 Continuing east we rounded the point at Capo San Vito - the north west point of Sicily, heading for the Egadi Islands.