Leaving Palermo was much less dramatic than the arrival! We waved goodbye to the Pirates and the very helpful Marina guys and set off for Cefalu 30 miles and 4 hours away. Hardly any wind so after a few attempts to set the sails and enjoy a peaceful journey we gave up and it was engine all the way.

As ever, the landscape was spectacular!

We walked the 20 minutes into the main town and Cefalu was much more wonderful than I had expected!

I love the lady eating her pizza out of a box in front of the Cathedral!

As if Cefalu wasn’t magical enough we took seats at a bar overlooking the beach at Sunset and imagine someone’s excitement at finding Ricard on the menu!! Yes!! Accompanied by possible the best ‘nibbles’ we have had so far!

We really enjoyed this small but lively place, a smattering of tourists, beautiful craft shops and exquisitely presented winding streets and alleyways.

Food was top notch too! My gnocchi was very light and Jacques’ pizza ranked in his top 5 of this trip!

We had just one night in Cefalu as we wanted to get to our final port with time to relax, clean the boat, make some repairs and pack ready to hand over to Marc and Claudia.

Capo d’Orlando has a huge, modern Marina and we moored up easily only to once again realise that the quay was to high for us to be able to get off the boat! It would also make it near impossible for Marc, Claudia, Gallileo and their luggage to board the boat!

Our second spot was perfect and slightly further away from the bars and restaurants that have a fondness for playing loud music! God I sound old!

We ventured into the Town, a 15 minute taxi ride away to sort out some ‘new’ wifi but after the magnificence of the other towns, Capo d’Orlando was a disappointment except for the views out to the Aeolian Islands including the active volcanic island of Stromboli which last erupted in 2019.

We headed back to the Marina, planning to have dinner there when we bumped into some ‘old’ friends! Rewinding slightly, when we were in Trapani, we were thrilled to see another Neel Trimaran. It is still not that common to see another Neel so we planned to go say ‘Hi’ to the crew of Anna II the next morning but they beat us to it! Wolfgang and Corinna came to visit us and explained that they were with their friends Walter and Anna (the boat owners) on their trip that started in Barcelona and would end somewhere in Greece!

We had a long chat over a coffee and it seemed that we were all heading to the same stops in the following days and hoped that we would see each other again. Capo d’Orlando gave us that opportunity and we had a wonderful evening sharing stories of sailing and after a few Aperol’s stories of life in general! Fabulous company. lots of laughs and as it turned out not much dinner!

We were able to wave them off the next morning but it was only after the waving that I thought to take photos!

Our last meal in a Marina – Pizza for me and Calzone for Jacques – both excellent!

We’re nearly at the end of this first Mossy Joe adventure, heading back to Palermo tomorrow afternoon to fly to Luscious Luton on Tuesday!

I’ll wrap up before we head home…….