Pius, a special floating house

Once in Licata harbor we moored beside a motor yacht,  L'erg Bleu, the only one that we like:  a Grand Banks. Alain, Hend and Brigitte. Soon we became good friends and we visited Valle dei Templi in Agrigento  a true paradise for archeology lovers. Our friendship actually brought us to follow them to Tunisia... Hend is Tunisian and with Alain, his husband are leaving there from the 90ies. So talking and talking with them I was starting wondering to go back to Tunisia after decades of desert exploration. So instead heading to Greece we changed our direction...Tunisia, we are arriving! but first a compulsory stop, the island of capperi & Passito:    Pantelleria. Passito wineyard.   End of September the bunches of grapes are taken to the greenhouses to dry. Magalithic settlement dating back to about 5000 years ago  Capers, one's best in the world. You can buy directly from growers. Amazing visit of a "Giardino Pantesco".  Structurally, these are dry-walled lava stone

In the  Villasimius  harbor we met many boats waiting for the best moment to cross the Sardinia channel. Actually we had some day of NW Mistral and usually approaching Sicily it becomes NE wind and so not really a comfortable  windward  sailing . Everybody decide to stay another day in the harbor leaving tomorrow early in the morning. But after in-depth studies on our 3 weather sites:  LaMMA  -  Windy  -  PredicWind , w e decide to leave the harbor at 17h00 to benefit of a new westerly wind and waves more stable  probably  until Sicily, a passage of  140 miles for an estimated duration of 16 hours . The westerly wind turns out to be stable and constant for a fun night passage.  Our forecast was right! A full moon rise is welcoming our night passage to Sicily, Emma is trying to find out some extraterrestrials on the Moon with her powerful Steiner binoculars. Early in the morning we reach our destination: Marettimo;  the most western island of Egadi islands.  Emma is so happy for the nig

The west coast of Sardinia is a savage coast, often difficult to navigate when the strong mistral blows and without many shelters.  We left Asinara after a great moon night. These are our suggested spots: 1. Fornelli passage 2. Grotta di Venere 3.  Capo Caccia 4. Port Conte 5. Alghero 6. Bosa Marina 7. Mal di Ventre island 8. Cala Domestica 9. Porto Flavia e Pan di zucchero 10. Carloforte island 11. Porto Scudo 12. Porto Giunco 13. Villasimius 1. First nice passage from Asinara island is the Fornelli ; one mile long and less than 80 meters wide with an average of 5 meters shallow waters. Westward follow 301° dromes alignment, eastward 72° alignment. 2. The Grotta di Venere , is a cave reachable only by land climbing down 650 steps. By sea you just can approach it but anchoring is not allowed. 3.  Capo Caccia  is the  culmination of  an impressive  15 miles long cliff up to 400m high.   4. Port Conte , a protected large bay just between Capo Caccia and Alghero. Very good holding and 3 s