Cefalu

Well our last entry mentioned our intention to cruise Westwards for a few days prior to John’s visit but like all good plans we changed it and went East about 30 miles to Cefalu arriving Monday 16th. Cefalu is a hugely interesting place with a large promontory called La Rocca, 278m high on which there is the remains of an old castle, originally built by Arabs and then conquered by the Normans in 1063. Di was also impressed by the 4th Century Temple of Diana half way up La Rocca. The medieval village is largely unspoiled and the narrow cobbled streets meander down to the old harbour. As well as the quite modern fishing trawlers which ply these waters there are still fisherman rowing 4 m brightly coloured clinker built dinghys to lay their nets. They have an unusual rowing style in that they row standing up. Although the streets are narrow it doesn’t stop the noisy motor scooters and cars which you have to watch out for (a One Way Street means nothing here !) The Cathedral (Duomo) was built in the 11th & 12th Century with wonderful mosaics dating from that time. The Duomo was built under orders from King Roger after his fleet survived a savage storm. During our stay the Coastguard pulled alongside to check our passports etc, a not uncommon thing here.
So we anchored there for 4 nights and then went back to Palermo to meet John who arrived from Fort Lauderdale via London (where he saw Amy) on Monday 23rd. It was great to see John again and he was keen to go somewhere on Envoy so we decided to head back to Cefalu. John was only here for 2 nights so we spent a 2 great days anchored off Cefalu, doing some walking around the Old Town and the Castle again, had a swim (my first) in the rather cool 17 d water and explored the coastline a bit using the RIB. We had bought a NZ leg of lamb in Ostia and Di prepared a great roast dinner which we washed down with Sicilian Chianti. Last night John took a taxi from Cefalu to Palermo airport – a 90 min drive for what had taken us about 5 hours. John shared with us some great news that he has been promoted to First Mate of the ship he works on “Imagin” on the E Coast USA.
During the last few days the weather has become noticeably warmer – now about 24d in the day and there is a little more tourist and pleasure boat activity. People have warned us about the general lack of competence of pleasure boaters here and we experienced that for the first time when a 9 metre sports style launch anchored and dragged close to us three times before moving off to annoy others. Cefalu is more or less on the way from Palermo to the Aeolian Islands where we are heading as I type this, our first stop being the Island of Vulcano (no prizes for guessing what’s there). After a few days in this area we’re planning to head to Syracuse and then in the direction of Corfu to meet our next visitors Don & Peta Pickering.
Photos: yes we do plan to put some more photos on the site – anyday now.
Technical: mostly going OK currently. Had a minor gearbox oil leak putting red tinted ATF into the bilges. Found a very slightly loose bolt which I tightened a quarter of a turn and this slowed the leak but has not stopped it yet. Also have found the Genset sea water pump intake has a slight leak and this will need some attention.