32. Sailing down the South West Coast of Sicily

32. Sailing down the South West Coast of Sicily

When we said goodbye to the Egadi Islands it was not only with sadness but also with trepidation as we had to sail on the nose against a South Easterly wind and swell. English seaman call this "Sailing on the nose". The French seamen calling it "Sailing in the nose" which is probably more appropriate in this case as it was unpleasant. We had 15 NMs to motor sail beating into this horrible sea to make it to Marsala. It was bumpy and slow. 

All the other boats were going in the opposite direction with the wind. The sea was made worse to start with due to the Sunday motor boats racing past making the sea more turbulent. 

Marsala was a clean and presentable marina but we had to get provisions from the local supermarket and did not have time to go into the town. What we saw was a bit sad. Buildings very dilapidated one with the iron rods falling out of the concrete sides of the building. But some restoration work was being done. 

The next day we headed for Sciacca and were suddenly hit by a sea mist. The visibility was down to 20 metres at times. We had to use the fog horn and the imagination was the feeling of an Italian motor boat roaring past and whoops we are in the way.  The sea mist did give some respite from the sweltering sun but as soon as the mist disappeared the heat returned. We had cold showers in the cockpit to cool down. 

When we arrived at the entrance to the Port of Sciacca which was another fishing port we saw all the large fishing boats arriving back to port all in a single line slowly making their way into the harbour entrance. Suddenly they all stopped and the VHF radio was chattering away quite excited in Italian. I radioed the marina and I got this gruff response from the Port Captain telling me to wait in the holding area which we did. We did hear one of the fishing boat skippers talking to the Port Captain saying they had immigrants on board and need the Police to be summoned. We still heard nothing about our situation and as it was such a beautiful evening instead we now motored over to a lovely bay and put the anchored down and had a peaceful evening before sailing on our way the next day. 

                         The Town of Sciacca from the bay we were at anchor. 

Sunset on anchor outside Sciacca Port.

Night time on anchor

Fires on the land as seen from the sea

                              

                        This photo seems to show a house catching fire

More spontaneous fires 

The chalk cliffs called the Turkish steps because the Turkish pirate ships would shelter here from the storms. 

A modern amphitheatre dug out of the chalk rock

An old sea-dog wandering around the seas

We now headed further down the coast to Licata missing out two ports which we were going to stay by and with a good wind behind us now we continued onto Licata. 

On the way there was mile upon mile of white sandy beaches some deserted and some with the massed proverbial umbrellas and sun-beds. We also saw Agrigento which has the Valley of the Temples as we sailed past. Nothing like a fleeting visit!. 

In the photo below you can see the Temple of Concord and behind interestingly the Sarcophagi of the nobles which are so large they look like houses! 

This strange deserted house built on a plateau of the chalk rock. Why?

We are sailing onto Ragusa with a perfect wind behind us and towards the most southern tip of Sicily. Ragusa is one of the places of particular interest for us.