Ep 168 SAILING TO PANTELLERIA | Crossing the Strait of Sicily & Discovering the Mirror of Venus

Before departing the southern coast of Sicily, Noemi and Josep spend an evening ashore in Sciacca, sharing a meal at Al Faro trattoria. Their dinner includes fried cod, caponata di melanzane, drowned octopus, Sicilian busiate pasta, and ricotta cannoli. As a humorous nod to maritime caution, Josep recalls the old sailors saying: “When the sea is rough, a good sailor is at the bar”. After stopping at the fuel dock, they anchor outside the harbor near town for the night alongside their friends Amaia and Flavio aboard SV Bolero, preparing for an early morning departure to the volcanic island of Pantelleria.

Crossing the Strait of Sicily

At dawn, both sailboats set out across the open sea. As the wind fills in, the crew unrolls the genoa to balance the mainsail. Mid-morning, a little after 11, Noemi prepares a galley snack of thin Sicilian bread topped with mozzarella, pomodoro, and prosciutto. The passage requires crossing the Strait of Sicily, one of the busiest maritime commercial thoroughfares in the Mediterranean, where large container ships and oil tankers transit between the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar. Managing a displacement cruising boat across active shipping lanes demands vigilant watchkeeping, as Josep notes: “It’s like if a man with a cane had to cross a highway”.

While underway, VHF radio relays urgent coordinates for two distressed migrant boats reported in the surrounding corridor, one with 40 people, 9 children, and 6 women, and a second with 43 people, 4 children, and 6 women. The incident highlights the severe humanitarian realities unfolding across this stretch of the Mediterranean Sea.

Arrival in Pantelleria and Island Exploration

By late afternoon, the high profile of Pantelleria appears on the horizon. Josep readies both bow lines and maneuvers My Life into the harbor basin, rafting up securely at the dock. Leaving the boat moored in port, the crew joins Amaia and Flavio in a rented turquoise vintage Panda to explore the island along the 60-kilometer perimeter road. Following their Mediterranean voyages on La Vida a Vela – Sailing My Life, the crew takes in the rural landscape, admiring “all these little black houses made of volcanic stone and the white, rounded roofs to collect rainwater”.

Their tour includes the ruins of the Acropolis of San Marco and Santa Teresa, an ancient fortified settlement dating back to the 3rd century BC. Continuing inland, they visit Specchio di Venere, known as Venus’s Mirror, a natural thermal lake fed by warm springs within an ancient volcanic crater. Here they swim in the warm water and test the sulfurous, skin-nourishing mud along the shoreline.

Passage Summary

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