Pantelleria Island sailing is an open-water adventure south from Sicily practically to the doorstep of North Africa. Tunisia lies just 52 nautical miles to the south of the island, and the wind blows unimpeded to create spirited sailing conditions ideal for fast passages. In fact, the residents of Pantelleria build wind blocks around olive groves and orchards, and the trees have a distinct lean to the south on the more exposed shores of the coast. It’s a wild, rugged, and mountainous place far from the usual tourist track well worth the effort to sail to during a Sicily yacht charter if you want to do more extended cruising in the Mediterranean Sea. Pantelleria is known as the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean because of its volcanic rock. The Arab settlers called it Daughter of the Wind, a romantic and apt description.
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No moorings are available. There are good anchorages in the bays and coves on the southern coast.
Dinghy dockage: No dinghy dockage is available.
Only nine miles long and five miles wide, Pantelleria is rural in nature, characterized by its fertile valleys, pine forests, and black lava rock formations left behind from the island’s volcanic origins. Montagna Grande (elevation 2,742 feet) is the highest point on the island and is well worth renting a car to get you to the hiking trails. The port of Pantelleria is a commercial harbor with ferry service from Sicily. The town has a variety of restaurants and bars. Archaeological sites of Phoenician origin abound, as do earlier sites where Neolithic peoples once lived. The older homes (dammusos) of the residents are built from basaltic stone and have slightly domed roofs that channel rainwater into cisterns. They’re quite interesting to look at.
Boat tours offer circumnavigations of the island to show you the beautiful inlets, rock formations (the most famous is the Elephant, a wind-carved basalt structure that looks like an elephant), and the many caves indenting the shore. You can also sail around the island, of course, and you’re likely to see monk seals and dolphins, as well as numerous seabirds. The black-sand beaches are ideal for swimming and the undersea rock formations make for intriguing snorkeling and scuba diving.
Free tie-ups at the pier are usually available at the main port of Pantelleria, on the northern end of the island.
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