Ciao Sicily!

In the last of my five weeks in Sicily, the Scirocco churns over Lo Stagnone for a few more days. The heaviest day drops back down to 12 degrees and peaks of up to 45 knots. Hardly anyone is outside, and even the friends and locals who ride this ultra-strong storm with the smallest kites don’t break their best marks.

I take a break and don’t go out again until a day later. The Scirocco continues to blast along at a slightly less rough 20 to 35 knots. I no longer fulfil my “Don Dodeci” mission, but I am satisfied with the 9.4m height I have achieved. The last few days my knee finally gives out. I can’t even edge without screaming – let alone jump off or even land.

For the rest of my journey I only jump in my bad direction. On the penultimate day, the Scirocco finally goes to sleep. In a mild 16 to 20 knots, I go out again with the 13er Edge – but the air is literally out. The right outer chord loses air. On the day of departure there is a complete lull that will probably last a whole week. The beach looks so empty and unusual after up to 180 kiters have been on the water here in the last few days.

My wife has left. The cultural programme is complete. My friend Tom hires a scooter and spends another two days touring western Sicily. When I take him to the airport, dozens of Italians are parked on the narrow hard shoulder on the motorway directly in front of it. Tom himself ran out of petrol once on the motorway with the scooter. Of course, the motorway maintenance team and police arrived immediately. He talks his way out of it and gets a full motorway closure to get to the next petrol station in the opposite direction with his free litre of fuel.

Lo Stagnone is really something special. The standing area is gigantic and the shallow water is ultra-smooth in many places – but the water level, especially at the northern end, is also extremely low from time to time. The bottom is muddy and soft everywhere and below a depth of five centimetres every kiteboard mutates into a lawnmower. The only dangers are a few mostly marked rocks in the water and some unmarked sticks and stones at the bay exit towards the north. On land, you should be careful where you put your kite down. There are quite prickly but flat thistles.

The wind should become much less from now on. The big kite holiday websites claim that the standard in summer is 15 to 20 knots. However, according to long-term visitors, this is far from the case. As a rule, you should expect 12 to 15 knots. If it gets really hot, that can mean a week of complete calm. For me, Lo Stagnone is probably only suitable in spring and autumn. There’s more Scirocco then, and it regularly brings well over 20 knots. We often had that here. I’ve sailed the 10 XR more often than the 13 Edge – and I can easily still sail the latter in 23 knots of basic wind.

I look sadly up the hill one last time and down at the lagoon with the drone. Sicily is a poor country. Kiting makes a difference here in Lo Stagnone. Property prices have already risen massively here. Nevertheless, a large part still looks like an abandoned western town. The hinterland is one big wild rubbish tip.

The car hire company SicilyByCar has really impressively bad reviews on Google. They only annoy me a little because 20 grams of sand in the interior after five weeks and 3,500 kilometres across Sicily would allegedly constitute “massive pollution” – and of course that costs an extra €45. I drive back to Cinisi, have the car vacuumed quickly and hand it in. They don’t notice the small dent from parking.