Swallow's adventures

On Sunday 20th May 2018 at 1000 we crept out of the extremely shallow entrance at Tropea marina, bound for the Aeolian Islands just north of Sicily. Our plan was to anchor at Stromboli, just over 25 miles away, and sleep for a few hours until 0300 and then sail around to the North West of the island to watch the eruptions; after that we would sail down to the island of Panarea and anchor in daylight….well, the best laid plans never work do they? It was a beautiful morning and we could see the island of Stromboli in the distance through the heat haze; Swallow took us past the clifftop old town of Tropea which looked like it would collapse at any minute onto the sandy beach below. We dodged a few fishing pots, we knew there were some fish around as a local was selling dorade from his boat in the harbour that morning. Today was one of the best sails that Swallow has ever given us, she was perfectly balanced on a starboard close reach; the sea was smooth and we were stonking along at 5 knots; luckily an obliging commercial vessel, who we were on a collision course with, changed its course to pass behind us; we thought it was strange that he wasn’t appearing on our AIS so we radioed him in case he hadn’t seen us. As we approached Stromboli the sunlight glistened across the water on our port side towards the eastern side of the island making a glittery carpet; a perfect day! We arrived at the San Vincenzo anchorage at 1745 hoping to find mooring buoys but it would appear that it was too early in the season for them to be out; so instead we dropped our anchor in 2.7m of sand, probably a bit too close to the beach for the regulations but we figured nobody would be checking at this time of day. A few crews had taken their dinghies to the beach so that they could do the four hour walk to see the volcano crater in the dark; we decided to stick to our original plan and sail around the top of the island later on to view the eruptions from the water. We settled down to eat our chilli which I’d prepared that morning in our Mr D thermal cooker; after about half an hour we were rolling around as if we were a hammock in a hurricane! This turbulence seemed to be caused by a race running between the anchorage and the small islet of Strombolicchio to the north, this, coupled with the shallow depth made it totally untenable for us so we decided to skip the sleep and up sticks as soon as dusk came.

We motored for an hour to the North West tip of the island; the crescent moon and Venus were shining brightly, there was lightening behind us and we could see the lights from the hikers’ torches on land and also the navigation lights of other boats. We turned our engine off at 2150 opposite the Sciara del Fuoco and waited for the fireworks; wow, what an experience: the eruptions, which happened every 20 minutes, resembled a giant roman candle; red hot spikes fired hundreds of feet up into the night sky and then bright orange and red glowing boulders and lava spewed down the slopes towards the sea where they cooled and solidified, constantly adding to the rugged coastline. After watching a few of these spectacular performances we sailed off into the night to look for a suitable anchorage.

As we approached the island of Panarea we had a startling radio call from an Italian ship’s captain asking us if we wanted to go “green to green or red to red”, this confirmed that we were definitely not receiving other vessels on our AIS; there were so many lights twinkling, on the island of Salina, in the distance on our starboard side that we couldn’t see him at all so Captain Paul decided on the standard ‘ port to port’ passing; we turned to starboard but still couldn’t see him so Paul changed his mind and started to go to port; all of a sudden I spotted his port light so he would basically have T-boned us, of course I dramatically screamed at Paul to go back on the course agreed and all was well! In comparison to Salina Panarea was in total darkness, so, although we could have just navigated with our plotter, we didn’t feel very comfortable entering the anchorage and decided to carry on down to Vulcano Island and anchor in daylight; we were both shattered but agreed that the sleep deprivation was worth what we had experienced tonight.


There are great anchorages either side of the northern tip of Vulcano below the island of Lipari; we arrived at Porto di Levante, the eastern anchorage, at 0600 and were both ready for a long sleep; unfortunately the hydrofoils bringing in the tourists start running early morning and their wash caused us intolerable rolling! We cat napped during the day and Paul fixed a broken data cable on the chart plotter; we noticed, and smelt, sulphur pouring out of cracks in the side of the volcano; we watched the rather large car ferries do a 360 turn and drop their anchors as they approached the harbour; a ginormous gas tanker anchored for the night next to the pier a few hundred metres from us and ran a large pipe ashore. There’s a nice beach of black, volcanic sand here, great for exfoliating your feet and you can swim among the sulphur bubbles, a natural jacuzzi! We observed people wallowing in the mud bathes in the hope of restoring their youth. Once all the commercial traffic had ceased for the night we enjoyed a very calm, peaceful evening.

After a brief visit to Cabo Orlando, back on Sicily, we spent a few days at the western anchorage on Vulcano, Porto di Ponente, where we took the dinghy ashore and walked over to the eastern side for a warm swim and a cold beer at the beach bar; here you can find pumice and lava rock, unfortunately I couldn’t find any obsidian, the beautiful black glass-like rock which is formed from the solidified lava. This area has a very relaxed feel to it; there are a few stalls selling jewellery and nik naks , small shops , car rentals where you can hire a mini moke, a supermarket and various bars and restaurants. We climbed up to the crater of the volcano early one morning, before the sun was too hot; this took us about an hour and was well worth the trip; the soft sandstone was hard to walk on but higher up the terrain was black gravel. We saw that stones had been laid to channel water down the sides of the volcano when it rained. The experience was, literally, breath-taking, as we were overcome by the fumes of the bright yellow hot sulphur which was pouring out everywhere; Paul managed to melt the bottom of his shoe when he stood on a hot patch! The crater is incredible, some people had climbed down inside to place lava stones spelling out their names. On the way down everyone laid a stone on a rock pile to mark their presence; the descent was faster but more difficult on the loose ground. We experienced fantastic views over to Lipari and down into the harbour where Swallow was waiting for us.


A few days later we enjoyed a gentle close hauled, hydrofoil dodging sail of four miles north to Pignataro on the island of Lipari; I had previously emailed Assunta at Eol.Mare and booked us in, luckily we were still in May so only €35 a night for us (with 3rd night free); this would rise to €50 in July and €110 in August!!! Marco the marinaro welcomed us in and promptly produced a set of steps so that I could easily climb off the bow onto the pontoon- definitely the red carpet treatment! Next to the marina is a cute little bar situated on the black sand of the harbour, well more of a shack really; here we enjoyed a cheap Italian beer and watched the local men playing cards. We took the 20 minute walk into Lipari town and noticed a few boats at anchor in the bay. Lipari is the largest of the Aeolian islands and was inhabited as early the Neolithic times when obsidian was plentiful and trading was lucrative; there is so much history here which is depicted in the town’s archaeological museum where, among other artefacts, we saw beautiful Greek carnelian jewellery and thousands of amphorae! Pumice and sulphur souvenirs are plentiful in the shops as is beautiful obsidian jewellery.


Should you find yourselves cruising in this area don’t miss the Aeolian Islands, each of which has a charm of its own; the sailing is great too as there is plenty of wind! Unfortunately we didn’t venture to Alicudi, the furthest west island or to the rocky Filicudi; we also regrettably missed Salina which has a double cone volcano but we will definitely be back; right now Cefalu is beckoning.