Castellammare di Golfo to Cefalu to Isla Vulcano

We left Castellammare di Golfo in the morning on our way to Greece. That leaves Sicily, the Straits of Messina, the east-coast of Italy, crossing the Ionian and Albania – some 450 miles or so on the direct route calculator. Of course we don’t always get to go in the exact right direction, but we hope that we can find some wind and wave luck over the next week or so. This table shows the plan...

 It is funny but after sitting in a marina for more than a couple of days the knots on the mooring lines seem to get tighter and we worry more about weather and the boat than when we’re sailing more frequently. We fussed quite a bit but decided … what the heck, we’re sailors. 20 knots of breeze in Tara is nothing we cannot handle, so at 7:30am we cast off. Our first day out of Castellammare di Golfo had us going about 65 miles to miles to Cefalu.

On the way to Cefalu.

We powered past the airport, then past Palermo – after that the wind arrived and let us sail downwind the next four hours until we were just a couple of miles away from Cefalu. The highlight of the passage was coming across an old surfboard floating upside down in the water.

Good sailing.

We contemplated picking it up and then decided that it would probably just clutter up the deck so we left it behind. We arrived at Cefalu and a very nice young man helped us fill our tanks with diesel and then we threw our anchor out behind the breakwater.

The harbour is on the other side of the town.

Cefalu’s harbour is about a 20 minute walk from town so we decided we would pass on going to town, made dinner and had an early night.

View at anchor.

Marina and I woke up around 7 and prepped the boat, lifted the anchor and at around 7:45 we were away to Isla Vulcano – a place we had visited last year. Again there was little wind in the morning and with 2 full tanks of diesel fuel we decided to burn some of it up. We had a choice to go to Marina Nettuno in Milazzo or to Isla Vulcano. We decided Vulcano because the day was a bit shorter, and it saved us 120 Euros in marina fees. We had enough water to last to Messina (another 120Euro per night marina) and thought what the heck, let’s go anchor near the stinky volcano.

On the way to Isla Vulcano

Finding things to do.

The volcano and some smoke coming out.

Isla Vulcano is a difficult anchorage. 250 meters from shore it’s 100 meters deep, then 50, 20, 10, 9, 8, 5, and 0. So you must be close to the beach to have any hope of holding an anchor. We dropped once but were too close to another boat so we moved closest to the breakwater.

Ross dropping the second anchor.

We were concerned that if the wind changed we might be blown onto the rocks of the breakwater, so we threw our second anchor out. Ross rowed in the dinghy a couple of boatlengths away and then dropped the anchor – literally. When I pulled it up the next morning it was tied in a mess of chain – lesson learned – pay the anchor out slowly. The other lesson was that just like everything else on Tara, the secondary anchor is big – 20 kilos. We probably need to put a 10 kilo anchor on the list of equipment we need to add to the boat.

Vulcano is an incredibly busy harbour – with tripper boats – fast Catamarans, small ferries, big ferries, hydroplanes coming and going several times per hour until around 11pm. We took Bonnie Blue to shore, hoofed around, bought a T-shirt or 2 – Jessie is so excited about her new Superman shirt, and had Sicilian Pizza and Calamari for dinner. Next stop Messina.

Sunset as seen between the dodger and the bimini.