First Charter of the season ...... continued....

And the adventure continues:

We left Panarea to sail to the active volcano island of Stromboli.

We left at five pm hoping to arrive in time for dinner with a fireworks display. Despite Eoli (the god of wind who apparently gave Ulysses the naughty winds that were blowing him off course) not playing ball and us having a calm motor all the way (the guests loved it that their G&T's didnt spill) we still arrived early.

So drinks it was, with all eyes turned to the lava flow hoping (half heartedly) for some action from the top. We were treated to some spectacular puffs - both the white clouds of steam and the dark clouds of ash - and the guest sipped their cocktails, oohing and aahing as i prepared dinner below. With me in the galley and food all about...Eoli woke up so we sailed to anchor around the corner.

The following day Eoli favoured us with sailing winds so off we sailed from the fireworks of Stromboli to the sulphur um fragrance of Volcano. Yip, just behind the little village you see in the picture are the sulphurous mudpools of Volcano. Apparently they heal all manner of ailments and people have been bathing in them since Roman times (or longer) Hmmm i seriously do believe that nothing survives those pools...you can see how far away we were anchored and the smell was well um overwhelming at times.
Leaving the aroma behind us (we'll heal another day) we sailed for 6 hours back to the mainland. Eoli didnt seem to know how to bid us farewell so we went from a hazy morning through a bit of rain to sunshine and a slight breeze to arrive back in Cefalu.
Ok ok so i'm STILL getting the hang of this photo thing. Here we have our escort from Panerea to Stromboli. Yip a pod of dolphins. They played around the bow for a good long while.