Visiting one of the most beautiful cities in Sicily, Cefalu

On the 3rd August we set off from Salina to cross the 50NM’s back to the northern shores of Sicily, in particular the city of Cefalu which we have never been to. The first couple of hours saw us motoring with no wind, but it came out to play and we had a great downwind sail in a NE3, arriving at 6pm or thereabouts.

Normally a peaceful anchorage in the prevailing westerly wind, it was rather bouncy in the easterly, but thankfully the winds weren’t meant to drop during the night so at least we could keep our bow into the swell and not have a rolly night, fingers crossed.

It was none the less a beautiful anchorage just outside the marina and on the quieter side of town!

We stayed onboard that evening, chicken salad and some vino of course, and were lucky enough to listen to the music from a classical music concert somewhere on land whilst doing so!.

The following morning we dropped the dinghy and motored into the little marina where we hoped it would be safe, to walk into Cefalu. We only had a few hours as the Mistral had hit the western shores of Sardinia and was working its way through to Sicily so we needed to find shelter that evening.

Cefalu

The town is dominated by a monumental rock rising to a height of 270 metres on which stands the Temple of Diana, a megalithic building, the historic quarter lying in its shadow, which we thoroughly enjoyed wandering through, to the tune of the marching band playing through the streets, stopping for some breakfast in the square at the foot of the Cathedral.

And the town seemed to go on and on, far more extensive that we could have guessed from our anchorage. So whilst David took the opportunity to have a much needed haircut, I continued wandering with camera in hand, as always.

Then with a smart David we wandered down to the shore to find the most wonderful picturesque water front and beach, full of Italians basking in the sunshine in transparent waters.

Sad to leave this place and we would have loved to have spent the evening soaking up the atmosphere, seeing the city all lit up, but we headed back to Seaclusion to set sail again, passing the busy side of Cefalu as we left!

We had a lovely sail for 23NM’s on a broad reach to a place called Termini Immerese which was said to be not very pretty, rather industrial, but had a very very safe anchorage on mud, which is like glue for an anchor, to await the 30+ knots of wind and thunderstorms coming our way. We dropped out pick, nestled in as tight as we dared against the harbour wall in 4 metres of mud and waited. The winds and storm didn’t disappoint and with all our electronics in the microwave, acting as a faraday cage, we had a rather lively evening on board sailing around our anchor which didn’t budge, thankfully, and watching the most theatrical electrical storm around us!

Finally, the worst of the storm abated and we could get some sleep. We actually stayed there 2 nights because, a) the westerly winds were still blowing, and b) we couldn’t get into Palermo Marina until the 6th, but we didn’t go ashore as there seemed little point given the online description of the town! After the 2nd night, we were visited by a french couple who were already anchored when we got there initially, expecting them to simply pass some pleasantries, we were a little taken back by a tirade of abuse, telling us we anchored too close to them 2 nights previously, in our minds we were nowhere near them, but decided to simply take the easy option rather than have a row with them and we apologised… This didn’t seem to placate them at all, so in the end we reverted to some curt responses ourselves before they left us…. Hey-ho you can’t please everybody..

Then on the 6th, we set sail again, to cover the 23NM’s westward to Palermo, which is the subject of our next blog!

6th August 2023