A Brescian in Sicily, our first story of 2015 – Part Three

Adriano Gatta, Brescia DOC, class of 1956, free-rider, mountaineer, former judo national team member, photography enthusiast (the photos accompanying the story are his). We have already brought you his article in which he explained his conversion from powerboat racer to sailor: we now publish in installments, as they used to do in old-time newspapers, the (semi-serious) account of his sailing over (and under) the sea of the Egadi Islands, Ustica and the Aeolian Islands, with some points on the northern coast, completed last summer.

READ THE PREVIOUS INSTALLMENT

Four days in Ustica have flown by and on Thursday, August 7, we leave the port of Santa Maria for Palermo; I pay the bill….. Surprise: August, Ustica, four nights in the harbor with exquisite assistance from Domenico, the mooring attendant, and Andrea, who provides water and electricity: total €150, less than €40 per night…okay, okay the state-owned port is free…..but…at the buoys you pay 35, you have nothing and you are far from the country…..thanks Usticesi, I will return to your beautiful island, count on it and I will bring friends there.

And those of you, GdV reader sailors, who have not yet been there, even if you don’t dive, go visit. Set course for 160° with a 15-kn mistral crossing to Mondello where we stop for a swim giving bottom amidst dozens and dozens of speedboats, irons and sailboats of every type and size and, finally, at 6 p.m. we arrive at the Cala, right in the center, at the Canottieri Palermo pier, where we are the guests of our friend Federico, who with his Wireless, a 45′ racing yacht, will represent the club at the Palermo-Montecarlo.

The world is just small and strange; just think that I met Federico, a Palermo D.O.C., on the ski slopes of Val Gardena; he, a Sicilian, rents a house every winter with “conterronei” friends in the Dolomites and, with low-cost flights, manages to satisfy this passion of his. When I told him I was coming by Palermo, he insisted that we be his guests at the Circle.

Palermo, beautiful and ugly at the same time, is also the final destination of the first leg of this long sail across the sea of Sicily. Tomorrow evening, I will accompany Sonia and Alberto to the airport and “pick up” the second group, consisting of Margherita, my wife, and Beppe and Patti two very dear friends of ours, who have shared sailing vacations with us in Croatia and beyond.

In Punta Raisi, a particular guy, Massimo, a Milanese transplanted to Trapani after a work experience for the America’s Cup, casually takes me there, who, fed up with breathing the Milanese smog, has started a very well-organized NCC (chauffeur-driven car rental) business. He carries out his work in Trapani and Palermo; it is much cheaper than cab (cell.329 8611040) text him with flight time and you will find him outside waiting for you…..and then he is a sailor !!!

During the three days in Palermo we visit the city, the street markets (Ballarò, Il Capo and, although a bit too touristy, the Vuccirìa), and try some restaurants. Among them, worth mentioning for the quality of the fish and the courtesy of the owner Leopoldo, La Cambusa, behind Piazza Marina, at the Cala.

But it is time to leave for the leg that will take us to the Aeolian Islands, the islands of the god Aeolus, the Wind Islands that, usually in August, never see any wind. But you know, this year, it is a bit peculiar, in the North water and cold, in the South wind, sea but, fortunately, a lot of sunshine.
That’s right, I would have expected a smotor vacation to the Aeolian Islands and instead this crazy summer 2014 has given us, it really has to be said, some beautiful thermals, just so we don’t regret Lake Garda…..

The trip to Cefalù begins around 11 a.m. with a rising thermal that upwind wide and 12/18 knots accompanies us to the beautiful north coast location where we bottom out in the roadstead in front of the beach in the old town, with a movie-perfect sunset setting the cathedral and fortress ablaze.

Dinner on board waiting for the full supermoon that rises promptly behind the mountain then ashore with the tender, to drink(but why drink ?) to ice cream and then to bed on a sea of oil. In the morning, take a stroll with the women in the village and refresh your feet in the old medieval wash house and then depart for Alicudi, the westernmost of the Aeolian Islands.

Thirty-five miles northeast with an easterly that allows us to sail reasonably well and that slowly strengthens but turns inexorably to grecale and forces us to anchor and motor on in order to arrive before evening.

Alicudi is a cone(the Aeolian Islands are all volcanoes two of which, Stromboli and, as it happens, Vulcano, active) that plunges into the blue Tyrrhenian Sea and so we gladly accept the offer of Giuseppe( Pino cell. 380 4672557) who proposes the buoy for 50 €; given the hour, the seabed that thirty meters from the shore beats at 25 mt, if we want to sleep peacefully, there is no other solution.

We goashore, advancing, Beppe and I but the two small restaurants in the microcountry do not inspire confidence, or perhaps it is the desire to be quiet on the boat and we opt for a Sicilian pesto pasta and Marghe’s chicken curry. The awakening, with a grand sunrise over Filicudi and Stromboli (see photo) is cheered by the arrival of Pino, the mooring man, or rather, the tribute giver, who gives us a small bag full of freshly caught shrimp.

Traditional breakfast skips and we eat raw shrimp just drained in seawater. We buy, at a derisory price, fish for dinner and calmly circumnavigate the island, stopping for a swim without even dropping( yes I know: bottoming out ….) the anchor, so calm is the sea.

Bathing naked because the water inspires such a sense of purity that we feel it is an offense to dip anything but our bodies…..
We cover the eight miles to Filicudi at a leisurely pace. We pass by Pecorini( one of the two landings on the island) but it does not inspire us and we wait for the sunset at Canna, a monolith that emerges on the NW tip of the island and leaves us astonished so beautiful.

We dine, with Pine’s bream and our eyes ablaze with this sunset that will remain in our hearts for the entire vacation. For the night we opt for the Filicudi harbor roadstead, carefully avoiding the buoys, which are too expensive and have boats crammed close together. The seabed is considerable but the weather reassures us. Quiet night and the next day after doing diesel(€ 2,20/ lt) and water( 25 € for a refill of less than 50 lt.) we leave the island without great regrets. Filicudi, beautiful; Canna very beautiful but I liked Alicudi best…..I am becoming more and more a wolf, or rather perhaps it would be more correct to say a bear, of the sea…..I love the solitude. Marettimo and Ustica docet!!!…CONTINUED…