Vulcano Island was our first stop from Sicily after a day long trip through the Messina Straits between Italy mainland and Sicily. We anchored here under the still active volcano which was smoking and giving off sulphurous fumes. Shaunagh and Max went ashore to take rubbish and reported back that there was not much to see except if you wanted to climb the volcano. Friends of ours did last year but we all decided not to. Not that it was a big trip as this volcano is quite low only 500m. We were all just lazy. The anchorage got a bit roly in the afternoon and a few boats coming in had trouble anchoring. We re anchored the next day to get away from a nearby boat.

After two days we went off to Lipari Island half an hour away, to a marina for some bad westerlies that were due. This was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. We had planned to go to Selina but the Lipari Marina answered first with a vacancy. We had the unusual experience of very competent marinaros (dock hands) coming in. Usually they have no idea what to do and insist on doing lines their way and not yours. These guys were excellent. I think half the time at other marinas they are part time gardeners, cleaners etc and not really experienced. Many other boats have commented on this on the app we all use. Peter and I did several little excursions into the town and old fisherman's harbour. Delightful. A taxi driver grabbed us at the bus stop on the first day and offered a tour of the island for an hour and a half. We went with him - quite interesting. Lots of pumice, black volcanic stone beaches and obsidian out crops. This island however is not active.

We left the Lipari marina about midday to go to Panarea Island just before Stromboli to anchor out and wait till just before dusk so we could time our passage to Agropoli to go past at night and see the volcano erupting. We got our timing just right - it was amazing. Every 20 to 40 minutes there is an eruption of varying degrees. We slowed down and saw several of them before continuing on overnight for the Italian mainland. There is an exclusion safety zone extending some distance out to sea but the local excursion boats just go on in! Stromboli is a mid sized volcano of around 900m but measured from the sea bed would be nearer to 2500m - it's very deep water all around.

The night passage was very uneventful with calm seas and next to no wind. We are now anchored in the bay underneath the medieval town of Agropoli above us.