Exploring the Start of the Aeolian Archipelago

After a wonderful evening in Scilla we left our safe buoy early on the 29th July and headed across the 43 NM’s to an anchorage on the west coast of Vuclano, the first of the Aeolian islands, which comprises of seven significant islands: Lipari, Vulcano, Salina, Stromboli, Filicudi, Alicudi and Panarea, plus a set of minor islands and rocks off the north east coast of Sicily. We had missed this completely back in 2014 due to bad weather and so were really looking forward to exploring them.

The Approach to Vulcano

Vulcano is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site where it is said you can, under the benevolent gaze of the ancient dormant “Vulcano” volcano, delight in the benefits of the thermal and sulphurous waters and an unspoilt seascape. According to Greek mythology, Vulcano once housed the forges of Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmiths, who was served by none other than the Cyclops. Even though the last eruption on the island, composed of four original craters, was recorded around 1890, the ancient volcano continues to make its presence known through fumaroles, the jets of steam on the crest and on the seabed, and the sulphurous muds renowned for their therapeutic properties. The downsides, the “spa” wasn´t open and the overwhelming smell of sulphur!

As we approached our anchorage, which was mega busy, we were very lucky to spot a yacht quite tucked in leaving so happily pinched their spot in 6m depth of pure crystal water over black sand! We were planning on staying there for at least a couple of days, chilling, jumping on the ferry across to the next island of Lipari, as that was short of anchorages and not short of exorbitantly priced “marinas” well pontoons, plus hiking up to the summit to see the Great Fossa crater at 391 metres above sea level, taken what is said to be breathtaking 360-degree views of the archipelago at the summit. With that we spent the evening on board, chilling out and watching other boats arrive and squeeze into places all over the bay, over a bottle of wine and some dinner!

And of course, watch the sunset reflect off the crater..

After a wonderful peaceful night, we jumped in the dinghy to go ashore and catch the ferry from the main port, on the other side of the headland, a short walk across for us, past the now being renovated natural spa, holding our noses coz of the smell!

It was about a 30 minutes trip across on the hydrofoil to Lipari which is the largest of the archipelago and very cute! We happily spent a few hours wandering the narrow streets, stopping for coffee and soaking up the atmosphere, we even found the most beautifully kept cemetery we have come accross. We will let the pics do the talking!

Lipari

By 2pm we were back on the ferry to Vulcano and safely got back to Seaclusion to chill for the afternoon and evening, planning on an early start to hike up to the crater before the heat of the day!

With some time to kill, we stayed down below to write the next instalment of the blog (being Otranto), as we were seriously behind. Somewhat ironically, if you recall from that blog we had mentioned being concerned about the security of our dinghy. Well having finished the blog, we took a look around us and at the point noticed that our dinghy line, still attached to Seaclusion was no longer attached to our dinghy. At this stage panic hasn’t set in, after all it was an onshore breeze so we just got the binoculars out expecting to see it on the beach. Sadly not and then the panic did set in. On taking a harder look at the line it was pretty clear that it hadn’t become detached on its own.

Jumping on the paddle board to paddle around all the yachts in the bay and the beach, still to no avail, we had to resign ourselves to the fact that it had been stolen. As you can imagine, we were very distraught but with little else to do, got all our papers together and then paddleboarded back to the beach in search of the guardia/police. By this stage we were so worried that the paddle board would also be nicked, so we carried the paddle with us into town, after all you cant nick a board without a paddle, or so we hoped. As luck would have it, the guardia were driving around, so we flagged them down, told them what had happened, and whilst they took our details and put a notice out, they told us we had to go to Lipari to report it properly. Somewhat dejectedly we returned to the beach, and thankfully the paddle board was still there, and returned to Seaclusion, constantly scanning the beach and jumping on the paddle board each time a dinghy turned up on the shore, in case it was ours, until the light was gone. With still no joy we booked a place in a “marina” for the following night, and foregoing our hike to the crater, left early the next morning.

Having moored up safely we then walked to the Guardia Costeria, to be told we had to go to the port authroity, a 30 minute walk away, then having arrived there and reported everything to them, we were then told we had to go the polizia to report it and get the necessary forms for our insurance, another 20 minutes further into town. 3 hours later we finally got back to Seaclusion, submitted our claim to the insurers and started googling for a replacement.. hahaha, the nearest being Malta!!!

It was during this process that the Marina office called us and said that a dinghy had been found and as luck would have it, brought it into their maina. Not wanting to get our hopes up, we trotted off to have a look and wow, there she was, it was ours, fantastic news, except we weren’t allowed to have it until it had been released to us by the Guardia Costeria, so off we trotted to see them, only to be told that they needed the person who had brought it in to release it to us. A meeting was set up for 4pm, between us, the “recoverer” and the Guardia, at which point it became clear to us that this wasn’t going to be simple and there was the matter of “salvage”.

To cut a long story short, by 6pm we did finally have our dinghy back, albeit quite a few euros lighter, thankfully it, and the mooring fees were covered under our insurance. At least we didn’t need to go to Malta! It was clear that it had been stolen, as when we got it back the choke was out and the petrol tank value was open, we never do that, and for once we were grateful that our temperamental engine was so temperamental!

Seriously in need of getting drunk after a day to forget, we got a lift from the marina into town, for some grub and to do just that, and thankfully a lift back to Seaclusion where, exhausted but relieved, we crashed, ready for a new day!

31st July 2023