Wednesday 1st May - Friday 3rd May (Happy Birthday tomorrow Ems!)

The Aeolians are dramatic jutting out of the sea 35 miles of the Sicilian coast. They get their name from the Greek god of the Wind, Aeolus and the story goes that he gave Odysseus a bag of winds but his curious crew opened the bag up and all the winds came out keeping him from returning to Ithaca. Hence the slightly dodgy winds around them sometimes. But we were lucky with a flat calm sea.
There are two volcanoes still active, one on Stromboli and one on Vulcano (supposedly the workplace of the god of fire). We had a lovely bubbling mud bath (once you get passed the sulphur smell which seemed to linger on us for days!); a bumpy anchorage one night (so we swapped bays) then decided to walk up the volcano. Its a lunar landscape, one minute scoria - grey dust the next red sand and lots of sulphurated hydrogen steaming out in places. Fantastic... Never been up a Volcano before...

So
We get to the rim of the crater after about an hours hard uphill walk. Then noticed that the good ship Pleiades was floating out to sea (with Wilson and Friday onboard) .. You can imagine the feeling in our stomachs... Martyn literally ran down the mountain and saved the day. Luckily she wasn't floating fast, but it was a horrendous feeling. We had already moved anchor once... Fellow travellers beware... (you can see her going sideways on the right in the pic!!)
But the quadrupeds were oblivious and several drinks were consumed in relief by the crew!!

Vulcano is a cool and cute place tho, despite the smell. Its incredibly lush and full of flowers. Real holiday feel to it. Although the beaches are black sand which always seems strange as people seem to stand out more (especially larger citizens). Its easy to imagine the ancients sailing around here and believing in gods of fire etc. Martyn did manage to get up to the rim in the end too.. No wonder he is getting so skinny.

tomorrow off to the Straits and Scilla and Charybdis!!