This morning we arrived in Mazara Del Vallo, a small city on the west coast of Sicily, after a fantastic day of broad reach sailing. It was a great way to finish our 4-day passage from Mahon, a trip of about 450 nm. We pulled in early in the morning and dropped anchor thinking we might stay for a couple of days. The anchorage offers good holding in mud behind the break wall of the city harbor, but it is open to the easterly winds.
Since we are headed eastward, those are the winds that we would want to shelter from and the forecast for the next several days is calling for them. So we are moving eastward tonight, while we still have northwesterly winds, to the city of Empodocle that has a better harbor and potential for anchorage while we wait for better winds to take us to Siracusa.
According to our Imray cruising guide, Sicily does not have a lot of good anchorages and marinas are the only option if you want to cruise this island. But we are trying to take advantage of the ones that exist. Empodocle is only 50 miles away, so an overnight sail will get us there in the morning before the contrary winds set in.
We did manage to get a little rest and do a few chores while at anchor here in Vallo, but we did not get to shore so we will miss seeing it.
Branko
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