Egardi Islands (Part 6)

The guided tour of the tuna canning factory then switched, for us, into a completely unexpected area. In one of the canning halls they have on display original bronze ramming tips from Roman fighting galleys of the 3^rd century BC.

(left & middle) Bronze ram decorated with Montefortino type helmet with cheek-pieces and 3 long feathers
plus an inscription in Latin of the names of the Quaestors certifying the construction of the ram    

On 10 March 241BC, the Egadi Islands were the scene of an important sea battle between the Romans and Carthaginians. The Roman victory ended the First Punic War and in the resultant treaty, signed on the island, Carthage gave Sicily to the Roman Empire. Whilst we could see the bronze warship rams in Favignana, we were told that the wooden remains of Punic galleys which had been raised from the seabed are on display in the archaeological museum in Marsala. That the museum had been closed when we were in Marsala, so seeing the rams was an unexpected bonus.

Ram with a relief decoration of a winged Nike plus an inscription in Latin of the names of the Quaestors certifying the construction of the ram   

We saw 3 bronze warship rams; it was incredible to be able to see and touch the tip of a 3^rd century BC galley and wonder at how many lives had been lost at sea because of its destructive capability. The fact that each bronze ram had an inscription on it of the names of the Quaestors certifying the construction was also a very interesting indication of just how ordered things were during that period of history.

New anchorage. Tucked in under Isolo Preveto   

After a fascinating morning at the museum we returned to BV and found that conditions at her anchorage, just to the east of Punta Longa, were beginning to deteriorate as we had expected might be the case given the forecast. In line with that forecast, the wind had moved round from north to west and increased somewhat, resulting in waves were being diffracted around the headland, causing BV to roll. If we stayed put it was likely to be an uncomfortable stay. So, we decided to move all of about 1nm to the west, to the anchorage we had first visited when we arrived in the Egadi Islands. This time, however, rather than pick up a mooring buoy, we tucked ourselves in between Isolo Preveto and the headland on Favignana. Here we were protected from both the wind and the swell…….and the scenery was pretty good too!

By sunset we had been joined by 3 other yachts (the day visitors had long-since left) and the wind had gone down, though the swell remained – we could see white water on the shoreline away from the protection of Isolo Preveto. Such a fine evening deserved a good meal, so we fired up the barbecue and enjoyed kebabs as the sun went down.

Motoring up the west coast of Favignana (left); Punta Sottile lighthouse and Cala Grande (top right);
Cala Rotunda (bottom right) 

The following day, Thursday 8 June, and our last full day in the Egadi Islands, we decided to take a look at Cala Rotunda on the west coast of Favignana. It is said to be a lovely bay and, as its name implies, is nearly circular. The wind had been forecast to be much lighter and more northerly than the previous day but as we motored out from the shelter of Isolo Preveto we could see that there was actually little difference in the conditions and the swell from the west even seemed to have increased. With the sea-going preparations made and the anchor up there didn’t seem much point in not having a look at the west coast, even if we thought it highly unlikely that we would be staying there. At the very least, running the engine for an hour or so would give the batteries a bit of a charge and would generate us some hot water for showers! It was a windy motor around towards the entrance to Cala Rotunda and a quick look at the white water on either side of the entrance and on the beach inside, and at the tripper boats rolling around at anchor, and we were decided on returning to our previous anchorage.

So we returned, dropping our anchor in almost exactly the same place from which we had so recently lifted it and waving cheerfully to the boats around us that we had left just an hour before. And then for the rest of our last day in these tropically blue anchorages, we settled down to the ‘hardship’ of enjoying the view whilst carrying out some of the routine jobs that we felt we shouldn’t put off doing any longer; jobs such as scrubbing the bottom of BV’s hull – there are worse ways to do that than whilst swimming in what seems to be an aquarium!

Egadi Islands, Sicily, Italy