The Aeolian Islands: September 4th 2017

September 4th:  Milazzo to Vulcano
I'd gone to bed with no Lorella in the cabin, & I woke at 0815 ditto. It had been rockin' & rolling' till 4am, so maybe she had gone on deck?
Turned out she had slept up there under the awning!
I joined Elizabeth, Jen & Suzanne at the table & awaited coffee: it was free with breakfast!

Morning at the marina

Aline & Philippe arrived & he started early with his anti-English comments. 
I'd had enough so replied in French. 

Philippe resting after brekkers & asleep for sailaway

Surprisingly, he actually said I spoke it well & should continue, but it didn't stop him  badmouthing, so I figured I would "do a Japanese" & ignore him.

While we all ate, the crew got ready for sailaway, & the Pallas slipped from Poseidon at 20 past 9, headed for Vulcano.

Leaving Milazzo - the castle is up on the left

Our course was initially dead north to clear the Capo, then along a 309 bearing towards our lunch destination, Gelso & the Asino 

Sailing the Pallas towards the Capo di Milazzo

beaches on the south side.

Once we'd cleared the capo, there was a fair old swell, but I stood on the bowsprit most of the way, enjoying the motion of the ocean hehehe :-))

Rahul pulls in the fenders

Properties on the Via Panoramica I'd walked past yesterday

During our morning sail I chatted to various peeps - mostly in English.

Jenny said she thought Philippe was very rude.

So it wasn't just me, then?

Jenny & Suzanne were retired nurses, &

The islands ahead are possibly Lipari & Panarea?

Elizabeth
said she was a cardiologist

Everyone else seemed to be pretty well off as well, so I was the 

Il Faro di Capo Milazzo

Pretty sure this is Lipari

Punta dei Porci Lighthouse (ie Tip of the Pigs!)

poor  relation of the Pallas passengers ;-p

Pepe watching the auto pilot

Rahul anchoring us in Gelso bay

It took us just over 2 hours to get to our Asino beach anchorage under motor, & Radu put the anchor down more or less dead on midday.

Punta dell'Asino - See text! ! !

I swam to the beach on the left, walked to the point
on the right, & swam back

Lunch was scheduled for 1330, so I decided to swim to the beach for an Aeolian brew.

I put my swimkini on, some Euros into my shorts pocket, & dived in.

I counted 632 breast-strokes to get to the beach ~ I'm crap at crawl :-/, & then found there was no cafe. 
Bum :-(

However, there was a track going right & through some scrubby woods (Err, woody scrub? ;-p) up to a little promontory, so I wandered along that: In bare feet it wasn't very pleasant :-( . 
At the tip I discovered there was a villa & a private dock. I later discovered the tip was called Punta dell'Asino.  
Err?  
'Nuff said ;-p
I reckoned it was 2-300m back to the Pallas, so I went down the steps & started to swim back.
I got up to 750 strokes before I got very knackered & switched to side stroke to stop the sea water going down my throat.

tbh, it was quite scary :-0

This was because no-one on board seemed to be at all aware I was making heavy weather of it & was struggling to swim back against the swell.

Well, as you can tell, I made it back without drowning because I'm here to tell the tale!

I was very ready for some calories after all that swimming (about 50 minutes worth!), & was glad to see I'd got back just before lunch was laid out.

After lunch we all chilled aboard, sunbathing & sleeping until after 1500 when Radu upped anchor & we set off to Vulcano port in the north east.

I'd previously been to Vulcano with the Star Clipper in 2006, & done the bathing in the hot pools bit at the beach near the port.

Approaching Vulcano harbour

As I'd wrecked a bikini forever that day, I decided to go for a wander around the village instead.

Various craft in Vulcano harbour

Intriguing rock shapes & colours close to the port

I arranged to meet everyone at 1600 at the quayside for our trek up the volcano.

We were to do it late afternoon in order to avoid the hottest part of the day on the climb, & maybe get some nice sundown pics.

Everyone was told to 

The start of the track up the Vulcano volcano

take plenty of water up, but I just got half a litre & pre-hydrated 
before our rendezvouz

Lipari island across the water

Then we wandered in a line up the road to where the track up began, & Nic told us we should take our time & to be sure to cover our noses & mouths at the top because of the fumes.

The track up was dry & dusty lava

We set off up the hill at 1700, & ~ as on Sunday, Philippe was the slowest, but Lorella zoomed ahead, despite only wearing fancy sandally boot jobbies. 

Everyone else was in hiking boots or trainers.

I generally go uphill fairly quickly & soon passed Lorella.

Vulcano port with Lipari, Panarea & Stromboli's distant peak

Everyone stopped on occasion for scenic views & photos, & I stopped every so often as well so I wouldn't get too far 

A bit further up

in front, even though the way up was very obvious.

Stromboli zoomed & rising from the sea mist

Showing the grey lava dust & the exposed cream rock

Gully of cream rock & grey lava.
Stunt water bottle adds perspective

It was still fairly hot, & quite a climb, but even with all the stops for photos of interesting rocks etc., & to allow peeps on their way down to negotiate the dodgy & ankle turning track, I passed everyone else in our group & got up there by 1830.

Colourful rock striations

Then I sat around (with my nose & mouth covered!) until everyone else arrived. 

The cairn almost points at the gap between Panarea & Stromboli

The others reach the top with larger Lipari & little Panarea behind

The crater rim ~ it was Very smelly up there

Nic had said there was an option to go further up the crater & some of the others had pre-arranged to be guided up to the top, but I'd been to Wakaari in NZ (see blog ~ NZ14:Day 12-Dec 1st~Whakatane & White Island to East Cape ), so I wasn't that fussed (it was expensive anyway), & I just hung around near the cairn, 
taking pics as the sun went down, & taking in the great views. 

Smoking fissure

Small person, big steaming hole

Green island surrounding sulphurous fissures

Sulphurous fumes

Aline & Philippe on crater edge

Alicudi & Filicudi provide a backdrop for pics

The Vulcano isthmus with the 2 peaked Salina (left) & Lipari behind

Alicudi, Filicudi & Salina in the setting sun

Sunset, Alicudi & Filicudi zoomed

It took the 3 that went up to the crater about half an hour to arrive back at the cairn, but I didn't want to set off down before the sun dropped a bit.
I was hoping for some more nice sunset pics!

As we set off back at about 7pm, I got a lovely 'golden' pic of tomorrow's island ~ Lipari, and the double-coned Salina off to the NW.

You can see the lower rim of the Vulcano crater in the foreground below.

Then it was time to 'do a King Cole' & march back down the hill, stopping quite often to admire the smaller Aeolian Alicudi & Filicudi islands out towards the lowering sun.

We head back down with the sun

The descent was tricky due to all the ruts in the track & the fact that gravity was trying its best to make us run :-/

Being a reincarnated chamois helped me to negotiate the ruts & rocks OK ( ;-p ), & I was well ahead of the others by the time I got to the road back to the village.

This part of the track was very eroded

Alicudi & Filicudi from 1/2 way down

Being the poor relation, I had already decided not to join the others for dinner in 

We had been up there

case they picked a restaurant outside my budget.

Besides, I preferred to eat without having to listen to Philippe's digs! 

Also besides - I'd got my bottle of water at an ice cream parlour & wanted a double cone ;-q

It was a cookies & caramel & a double choc double cone, & yup, it might spoil my dinner, but I was in Italy on "me ollydiz"  hehehe :-D

Full moon over the port

I hung around at the harbour enjoying the ambience of Vulcano before 

A zoomed moon

deciding where to eat & saw the full moon hanging over the slopes of the volcano. A couple of pics ensued before it disappeared behind the hill.

I also found a great fish restaurant called King of Fish which had a cooler full of all sorts of sea creatures.

My unusual table before my food arrived

Even my table was scenic!

After an explanation of what fish was what (some were very dear, despite being locally caught :-( ), I decided

The view from my table

on spatolo (AKA sole) & a green salad.

I had a local fizz to go with it, but my
hieroglyphs say it was "slightly weird"! !

I was well ready for some dinner, despite the double cone!  :-q

Rolls of fish caught that afternoon. Yum!

The spatolo was rolled, & the green salad had red tomato & black olives in it. The homemade bread was awesome, though, & the pre-

Masts in the marina

prandial ice-creams made absolutely no difference to my appetite & I ate all of it.
Post dinner, I walked back towards the zodiac pick-up point at the harbour & bumped into Serge, Jen, Suzanne & Philippe who said they'd had a pizza.
Boring!
You can get pizza in GB, but I've never had rolled sole anywhere but Vulcano.

They said everyone else had gone back to the Pallas to de-dust after the climb, & we were to wait at the quay for the zodiac. Roberto plus 3x pizza turned up while we were there: he was clearly not on chefing duties that evening.
Rahul arrived 20 min later-the pizzas would be cold! :-/ , & said we must take our dusty shoes off before going aboard the Pallas, so I went for a quick paddle in my boots to clean them off, then hung them over a railing once aboard so they'd dry off. We generally did not wear shoes aboard anyway. This was very different to the rules on the Polar Pioneer where we were warned not to walk about barefooted!
Back aboard, I also washed the lava dust off everything else & hung them out to dry overnight, then checked Es, wrote notes & went to bed with sudoku.
Lorella slept on deck again & tomorrow's plan was Lipari.
OAO