Episode 40: Sailing the Egadi Islands of Sicily

We cast off from Trapani and cross into the Egadi, making Favignana our base to explore the archipelago’s history, stone, and sea. On Favignana, by sea, by bike and walking, we show you the Ex Stabilimento Florio tuna factory museum brings the Florio legacy and the mattanza to life and we swim, sail and film at the signature bays —Cala Rossa, Bue Marino, Cala Azzurra, and Grotta Perciata—where the shoreline’s dramatic “steps” and caves reveal centuries of tufo (calcarenite) quarrying that literally shaped the island’s landscape and culture. We show how quarrying carved wind-sheltered cuts and ipogei and left amphitheatre-like cliffs that make these bays so photogenic. We filmed the entire Giardini Impossibile (Garden of the Impossible), a garden built around the tufo caves by a Sicilian woman in the 1960s that saved the failing calcarenite industry from a destiny of refuse into a destiny of beauty. Because the Egadi Marine Protected Area protects vast prairies of Posidonia and regulates anchoring and access by zones and seasonal buoy fields, we choose the smart plan: leave the boat and ferry to Levanzo and Marettimo when wind, holding, or restrictions make anchoring impractical. On Levanzo we highlight the Faraglione. On Marettimo we film the hike to the Castello di Punta Troia, now home to a small museum/observatory, and peek into sea caves that fringe the wildest of the three islands. This episode blends passage planning with on-shore culture—stone, tuna, and timeless blue—so you can copy the route with confidence. Tell us your favorite Egadi cove or quarry in the comments to help other cruisers plan. Our channel is all about sailing the Mediterranean. We help anyone who wants to sail the Mediterranean, whether they are brand new at it, aspiring to go, or just arm-chair traveling. We generally post about our adventures with beautiful scenery and helpful hints, but we also post about the challenges too and how we resolve them. Attitude is everything!