ENVOY CRUISES WEST ALONG THE NORTH COAST OF SICILY

You can’t write about Sicily without mentioning the Mafia, which has been heavily entwined in Sicily’s more recent history. Tourists don’t come into contact with the Mafia and have nothing to fear from them, but it’s estimated that 70 per cent of Sicilian businesses pay protection money or “pizzo” to the Mafia ranging from about 200 Euros (NZ$312) per month for a small shop or bar to Euro 5,000 (NZ$7,800) for a supermarket. Back in 2004 the Italian Mafia’s total annual income was estimated at 90 billion Euros (NZ$141b), of which about a third was generated in Sicily, and their total assets estimated at over a trillion Euros.
Thankfully the murder of anti-Mafia judges and police has ceased, but while a good part of the Mafia leadership are serving lengthy prison sentences the organization apparently continues to thrive, and still has tentacles in the highest levels of society.
After Amy’s departure we left Trapani for the last time, heading east and anchoring off north coast beaches – Scialandra, Capo Rama, Mondello and Porticello.

Views from our anchorage at Scialandra

We find many modern super yachts lacking in style but this grand old lady looks stunning

Along the coast of Sicily there are dozens of ancient watch towers

Although a few other boats were anchored off these beaches, none of them offer complete shelter and fortunately the winds were either southerly or very light northerlies with little swell. Again we were surprised by the very large number of RHIBs – at Mondello there were several hundred at anchor with people just sunbathing and swimming off them. In New Zealand you’d normally beach your RHIB or anchor it very close to shore and spend your time ashore, but here motor boats are not allowed in swimming areas so they have to anchor outside the buoyed swimming area. Considering the way Italians drive their small craft this is a very sensible precaution.

You rarely see a rooster tail like the one from this 70 footer

We bypassed Palermo and headed to Cefalu, anchoring off the marina and with some protection from a large marina breakwater. This is a great, picturesque anchorage, protected from all except NE winds and dominated by La Rocca (the rock), 278 metres high and the site of Il Castello, a ruined Norman castle. 

Cefalu and La Rocca viewed from the sea

Some swell penetrates the anchorage but our flopper stoppers kept us comfortable as well as keeping other boats from passing too closely.

Envoy in stunning Cefalu anchorage

View from Envoy at anchor in Cefalu

Cefalu’s extremely crowded sandy beach is quite typical

Many people choose to swim off less crowded rocks

Here in Cefalu our Kiwi friends Doug and Mary joined us for two weeks and we had no qualms about leaving Envoy unattended at anchor while we did some day trips ashore; although we’d spent some time in Cefalu in 2007 it was great to revisit this absolutely stunning medieval town with Doug and Mary.
A highlight is the Duomo di Cefalu, a stunning church built in the 12th century.

Duomo di Cefalu viewed from the sea

And from land

We found this very talented model maker in Cefalu - he charged us a Euro for taking his picture

TECHNICAL I changed the Lugger engine oil and filter after 200 hours, a job made easy by the 12 volt oil-change pump. Our large RHIB had been in the water for 9 weeks and was becoming increasingly difficult to keep clean (it’s not anti fouled), so we swapped it over for the small RHIB, which is OK while there’s only two of us aboard. The small RHIB is suspended from Envoy’s transom when not in use so marine growth isn’t an issue. The large RHIB is too heavy to suspend in that way and we tow it.

ENVOY LOG As at 17/8/14, we’d spent 130 days aboard and cruised 1,166 miles for 212 engine hours.