Black Swan
Northern Sicily
Juan my crew for the northern Sicily and Aeolian island sojourn joined me on 26 September and we left Palermo the following morning.
Hot sunny clear weather but unfortunately light winds for most of the journey to Cefula our first port of call.
The coastline of northern Sicily is very rugged with high rising mountainous peaks and pinnacles. Very much in view is the volcanic nature of Sicily’s dramatic geological history.
In the distance we could see Cefula with its sheer rocky headland rising above its compact town.
Cefula has very ancient history dating back to the ancient Greeks. Modern Cefula has lots narrow street alleyways full of restaurant
The smallish cathedral towers stand out above town.
We had a problem when we moored up stern to at end of the pontoon one of the underwater bow lines got caught up on the propellor.
Juan an me had to get into the water with our snorkelling gear to slowly clear the rope jammed between the propellor and the sail drive. Took us about an hour to completely clear the propellor of the 6mm diameter guide rope using a knife to break down the rope fibre and eventually dig it out.
Strangely previous to this I’d been practicing my breath holding using stop watch and Sp oxygen heart monitor. Got up 2.5 minutes so it helped me stay under water longer.
Following morning we headed east again to Capo D’Orlando to the brand new marina with excellent facilities. The next morning we motor out to Vulcano the most southern of the Aeolian islands.
Vulcano has large Caldera that dominated the island not particularly high but large in circumference.
As we walked around the small village sized town we noticed people bathing in natural thermal bath covering themselves with light brown mud. There’s a constant smell of Volcanic sulphur.
Next morning we motor over to Lipari which is only 3.5 nm away from Vulcano. Lipari had largest town with a fortification on the high basaltic rock that overlooks all of Lipari.
Inside the fortress is an excellent museum of Ancient Greek artefacts. With 4 / 5 displays areas the Greek pottery remains were pretty intact in most cases. The ancient Greeks who occupied southern part of Italy and Sicily were an extremely sophisticated people and the remains of their temples and pottery and gold fashion wear is breathtakingly beautiful and intricate in design.
Their temples housed their gods and were always mounted on a promontory or acropolis. The towns were on grid pattern and their location and layout depended upon fresh water, sun location and wind direction strategically placed on natural prominences such high ground on or by rocky outcrops.
The Aeolian islands are all Volcanic in nature with Stromboli’s being recently active. They rise up sheer from the sea bed and like an iceberg you only see the top part as very small percentage of their overall size.
We decided to leave Lipari early at 6am on Wednesday so we could get back to Palermo before the strong westerly winds came through on the Thursday.
We arrived back at Palermo in the dark at 21.00pm on Wednesday 2nd October. Two big ships just happened to be leaving the main ferry port. Hard to see at first due to the towns back lights.
I happened to notice movement of large ships mast lights which was fortunate as I wouldn’t want to be sliced in half by a large ferry!
We moored up in Arenella marina. Following morning the wind had increased and was blowing into the harbour which wasn’t protected from the winds and the sea.
We could hardly get off the boat it was that rolly. I decided that the marina was untenable for Black Swan. We left and went back into marina Villa igiea which is much better protected with proper breakwaters.
Now I wait for my next crew person a Canadian lady the second Canadian lady that has sail with me on Black Swan