Mazara del Vallo Publish (Part 1)

Leaving Sciacca   

What with the morning shop at the supermarket, filling with water and a quick wash-down of the decks, we didn’t get going from Sciacca until gone midday on Wednesday 31 May. Yet again, there was very little wind for the first couple of hours of the passage but at about 1500 it filled in sufficiently for us to sail, very gently, for an hour.

Passing Capo Granitola   

However, off Cape Granitola, the wind dropped away again such that we made very little progress against the slight southerly current, so we switched the engine back on. We passed a catamaran under cruising chute also going very slowly but at least that crew had the current with them.

New destination: Mazara del Vallo   

We had hoped to make it to Marsala for the night but, bored with continually motoring places, we decided to call in at Mazara del Vallo, about 15nm south.

Anchored just outside the port of Mazara del Vallo   

The harbour is said to be quite shallow around the yacht pontoons and the Cruising Association’s forum also suggests that the charges are rather steep for few facilities. So we anchored outside the main harbour, in the lee of the breakwater and just clear of the dredged channel marked on our chart. It’s a nice anchorage, albeit rather shallow [Ed: much like the dredged channel!]. Despite being right outside a fishing port, we were just commenting that the water seemed clean and that it might be worth swimming here when…..

Swimming was instantly cancelled!   

……. this chap swam past us. It has to be the largest jelly fish we’ve seen – about 40 cm in diameter. Ideas of swimming were quickly shelved!

A calm day turned into a glassy evening albeit with a bit of a roll from a very light swell from the southeast. And there was another beautiful sunset to accompany sundowners. We read a bit more about Mazara del Vallo in our Sicily guidebook and decided, since there was no wind forecast for the next day either, to stay put at anchor and see what the town had to offer.

Post script: the slight south-easterly swell magnified overnight [Ed: well, it felt like it!]. After a poor night’s sleep and with the dinghy inflated for going ashore, Nicky decided to lay out the kedge anchor and haul BV round so that she pointed into the swell. Instant effect! The rolling quit, the sinks stopped glugging if the plugs weren’t in, and we both slept undisturbed the next night.

Mazara Del Vallo, Sicily, Italy