AEOLUS, kindly king and lord of the winds!

Force 7 from the SE and increasing, gusts > 40 knots and the anchor held in Porto di Ponente, on the island of Vulcano.  Boats had crept in all day seeking shelter and our early spot in the middle of the harbour ensured a good night's sleep in the event that the wind direction changed, yet again.

We had been forced to turn back from the Tyrrhenian Sea as we came out of the Straits of Messina...gale force winds were forecast from the NW and the seas were very choppy.  We would have had to motor against the wind and sea all the way to the Aeolian Islands, and so made a wise decision to go to Reggio di Calabria (visited there on our way through in 2011) to wait for favourable winds.  We didn't expect to be there for three nights!   But we got a lot done on the boat and hand carried fuel back from the local town.

We left early with gusts up to 30 knots in the Straits but we were determined to get to the Aeolian Islands.  Sailing with reefed main and jib with winds from the NW and a lumpy sea we were able to maintain a course more or less in the right direction, but it was slow going and finally as the wind came from the W we motor sailed towards Vulcano.  One of the MdR boats, Ticketeboo, with Alan and Sue on board were anchored in Porto di Levante to greet us, but they left early next morning to take the forecasted easterly winds to Sardinia.  That same morning we head another W gale forecast and moved to Porto di Ponente on the other side of the isthmus for more shelter.

In Porto di Ponente during the gale, looking towards the caldera on Vulcano

Bought some wonderful fresh orata (a gilt-head sea bream)

                                                                                

Sunset at Porto di Ponente...in calmer weather

 

 

We climbed 800 metres to the most recent of volcanic activity, Gran Cratere and we enveloped in a hot sulphuric haze.  We could just see Kinabalu in the bay below and looked out to Stromboli which we'd hoped to see lit against the night sky.   Bob was more adventurous that I was and disappeared in a puff of smoke to take the photos of sulphur below.  All a bit surreal!