Selinunte to Egadi Islands, Sicily

Selinunte Temples from the Anchorage

Monday 1 July 2013 


Sciacca looks very inviting when we surface the next morning after our vigorous sail for 7 hours from Agrigento, but in the end Selinunte is where we spend the night.

The guy on the phone is calling the taxi, the others are helping...

Sciacca is a lovely old town perched up on the nearby hill. There are typical buildings around the harbour, with a supermarket and Guardia Costiera immediately over the road which are great for stocking up and checking in - and we each do separately to save time.  Pippy soon returns to the boat with some shopping and a plan to go back for more later, and Richard acquires our Officio Circondariale Marittimo - our official document for the boat allowing us to navigate in Italian waters. We were planning to do this paperwork in Trapani so feel ahead of the game.  But wait.... we are not quite finished.  Now we have to go and get a stampa from the local Polizia Commisariato which we are told, is some distance away.

The Marina Office is very helpful in calling us a taxi and giving us directions.  The price is negotiated as Euro 15 there and back.  There are no buses.  The taxi soon arrives - a bus which could carry 8 people!  On we go up to the top of the hill and along the ridge looking out over the Sicilian Channel, until finally on the outskirts of town we arrive at a very official looking building, where we wait, and wait, and finally after about half an hour we are escorted into see a uniformed guy who looks at our brand new document and his eyes light up with joy as he advises us we have to go to Agrigento to get the stampa... no no no... not here!!  We tentatively ask if we can do it in Trapani (its where we are going) and he raises a finger at us and says No!  Agrigento!!  Okay we say. No problem!  He looks very happy again and off we go in the Euro 15 taxi back to the boat where we then find out it is not E30 for the night's berthage as first told, but E45.  

Suddenly that anchorage at Selinunte we read about in the Pilot Book is looking very inviting and soon we are on our way.  The wind is gone and there is not a breath of air as we motor for a short time and drop anchor in sight of the acropolis and ancient temples which were once the site of a large city dating back to 600BC.  As the sun goes down in the still afternoon, we enjoy a swim and a cold beer and contemplate the invasion by Hannibal in 409BC which destroyed the city.

The view from the dining room is not bad!...

This open roads anchorage would only be good in these calm conditions. 

The next morning the wind is looking quite promising for us to strike out for the north western tip of Sicily and our next destination which we hope will be the Egadi Islands. 

At some stage during the day the wind swings around behind us and even Pippy is forced to admit that the spinnaker would be a good idea.  Richard immediately gets that look on his face like when he is about to get a gelato ice cream, and the big bag comes out. Some time during our many conversations and beers with Marcus the Irish Sailor with an identical boat to ours, we discussed the dangers of using the spinnaker pole while short handed, and possibly trying our spinnaker without the pole like an a-symetrical gennaker. Marcus is the lucky owner of a purpose made gennaker which he swears by.

We are in the money as Richard fixes the bow attachment...

Today we have the ideal conditions for this and soon Richard has it all rigged up and we hoist without any problems.  Soon we are enjoying an additional 1-2 knots which is great in the light wind and opposing current we are experiencing today.  We get a good three to four hours out of the spennaker.

Our arrival into Cala Rosso on Favignana Island is a lovely surprise as we round the eastern tip of the island and suddenly find ourselves in an enclosed bay of crystal clear turquoise waters on a sandy bottom.  In no time the anchor is down and we are over the side.  This swim gets ten out of ten and lifts our spirits with a feeling that we are cruising at last.  The low cliffs surrounding the bay have curious linear structures built into them which look man made, but possibly caused by erosion.

Grandpa Fish

...and Pippy

It had to be too good to be true and it was.  Just before sundown the Park Rangers come alongside and advise us we cannot anchor there but can go on a buoy for which they touch us up for Euro 25 for the night on the mooring. We should have seen that coming, but never mind, it was a lovely spot to be.  There is a very strong drive now the protect the marine environment from the damage done by anchors on Poseidon grass, which we are very aware of and never anchor on grass for this reason.  We do support this especially when we see anchors being lifted with great clumps of green healthy grass, and roots tangled in them. This damage is unsustainable.

The next morning we head into the harbour of Favignana, to anchor close to the old Tuna processing factory and find out more about the Egadi Islands and where we can and cannot go.  

It is a lovely small town - charming with the holiday season in full swing and families making the most of their holiday break. We imagine ourselves being here with our own families and miss them at times like this. 

We love strolling through and soaking up the atmosphere.

However Richard has more serious things on his mind namely the splattering of some sort of oily fluid under the engine which he is wiping up each time we run the motor.  We will have to take a short service stop in Trapani, which is annoying as we paid quite a lot of money to have all the engine checked over and serviced up to date by Charlie Vela in Malta. Something is not right.

The cable car ride up to Erice at the top of the mountain beside Trapani looks interesting.