Monday April 9 - Sirius was due in Salina at 02:00. Awake at 05:00, staring at phone, willing it to ring. Finally it did, at 11:00! They had arrived at 03:00, after a calm passage, punctuated only by a close encounter with a fishing fleet which was trailing miles of nets, equipped with flashing lights; After a time, one of of the fishing boats broke away from the fleet, and powered over to Sirius, shining a large spotlight onto them. Pirates or what? Popeye woke the only Italian speaker on board, who worked out that they had to follow the "pirate" slowly. The "pirate" then guided them around the nets and out of danger.

The approach to the volcanic islands was impressive, even at night, but the port of Salina is towny, exhaust fumes and all. To top it all, the fuel berth only opens May 1 ( they didn't fill up in Corsica, closed for Good Friday), so tomorrow they will have to jerrican 120 litres from the petrol station; after which they will sail for Corfu, passing through the straits of Messina.

If all goes well, they should be in Corfu in the early hours Friday. Spent the morning reserving ferry Corfu-Venice, and flights Venice-Brussels. Flights took 5 minutes, ferry 2 hours!

Thinking about giving up the day job, and becoming a travel agent