Egadi Islands (Part 2) A brief visit to Levanzo

The 3 main islands that form the mini-archipelago of the Egadi Islands are Favignana, Levanzo and Marettimo. They have a population of around 4,600, mostly on Favignana, the largest island. The islands are a hugely popular holiday destination for the Italians but not, it seems, much known about by non-Italians.

On the morning of Sunday 4 June we were anchored off the south coast of Favignana taking a good look at the weather and planning how we were going to use our 7 day window to try to visit as many pretty anchorages as possible. With the wind from the north we decided that we should take a look at the next largest island Levanzo and pick one of the 3 bays on its southeast side to anchor for the night.

Punta Sottile lighthouse (top) and Punta Faraglione, the north tip of Favignana   

We sailed west (yes sailed!) along the southern side of Favignana and then beat our way north past the Punta Sottile lighthouse. Once we were far enough north of the rocks we tracked northeast which gave us our first view of the northern side of Favignana and, once past Punta Faraglione the northern tip of the island, our first view of Cala Principale and the small port of Favignana.

Approaching Levanzo   

Our track then took us almost directly towards the island of Levanzo; almost because there is strong current in the channel between the 2 islands. This is where historically (until 2010) huge nets were laid to catch bluefin tuna. In times past, tuna fishing, and the mattanza (the slaughter of the tuna trapped in the nets) comprised the principal means of earning a livelihood on the island. In late spring, the tuna collect in great shoals off the west coast of Sicily where the conditions are conducive to breeding. Large scale hunting and killing of these huge fish has been going on here since the time of the Phoenicians but over time the process became more and more efficient. It is no wonder that the bluefin tuna is now on the EU list of endangered species.

Levanzo village and Cala Dogana   

Levanzo is small, just 6 square miles, but is very attractive with high peaks and lots of pine trees.  The tallest peak, Pizzo dei Monaco (278m), is just to the west of Levanzo village and it overlooks the first of our potential anchorages, Cala Dogana. There were a couple of yachts anchored there, and it would have been conveniently close to visit the village, but every time one of the hydrofoils or fast ferries arrived in the port their wash sent these 2 yachts rolling wildly.

Pizzo dei Monaco peak over Levanzo village

So, we worked our way east looking at the other 2 options. We passed the busy but sheltered Cala Fredda and then on to look at Cala Minnola. It was more remote and quite attractive as an option but the one fishing boat in there was bouncing around a little on the swell and that would only get worse as the wind veered overnight to the northeast.

Cala Fredda   

Decision made; we’d be anchoring in Cala Fredda. The only issue was finding a space. Working our way in, we passed an outer row of yachts moored to the ‘not in use’ buoys, then a line of several groups of rafted up motoryachts before reaching an area where there were almost enough RIBs anchored to walk across the bay without getting your feet wet. Amazingly, between the RIBs and the motoryachts there was a BV-sized anchoring space so we bagged it and then took the rest of Sunday off to relax in the sunshine and swim. Activity was at such a low level that I didn’t even lift a camera to take any photos! Come 6 o’clock there was a frenzy of anchor chain hauling and revving of engines and within half an hour we were practically the only boat left in the bay. Two more yachts arrived and moored to the ‘not in use’ buoys and the 3 of us stayed overnight.

Egadi Islands, Sicily, Italy