Kicking off with our most exciting news - we saw a whale! Or to be precise, we saw the water plume of a whale. Twice! We set off from Salerno on a Sunday, stayed a night in a cute little (ghost) town called Acciaroli and then jumped into the deep end taking on an 85nm journey to the northern-most Aeolian island, Stromboli. That route took us further offshore than we've been so far on the trip, and that's when we saw our whale! It was very exciting but with another 14 or so hours to go before reaching Stromboli, we were reasonably glad he didn't come any closer since whales have been known to get a little too cosy with boats and the result is sinking. Later on, after both sun and moon had set, we suddenly noticed something fluttering around us. I thought it was a bat but it turned out to be a little bird who wanted to hitch a lift! Unsurprising perhaps since we were about 50nm from the nearest land at this point so he'd come a long way. He found a cosy little spot next to Gerard's foot and stayed with us for the rest of the night (at some point cleverly deciding he'd be safer up in the sail).

Stromboli is home to (or, more accurately, is) an active volcano and we'd seen the glow of the lava throughout our night crossing, already from miles away. It's referred to as a natural lighthouse in the region and from our experience, it was quite effective. Our journey there was a dream and we actually went so fast that we arrived 3 hours before expected, still in darkness. We decided to use the time to take a brief detour to the NW side of the island where could watch the eruptions until sunrise. It was an incredible reward after our long slog - there were not many things that could have convinced me to prolong the time before bed.

After a night in Stromboli, we set off intending to stop for lunch in Panarea and then continue on to another (aptly named) volcanic island, Vulcano. After such a smooth few days we were due a problem though and it came in the form of our electric anchor winch not working. Fortunately we discovered it before dropping the anchor since manual hauling is no fun! After a few hours of man time with his tools, Gerard managed to get it working again but neither of us had energy for more sailing at this point so we decided to stay the night on Panarea. Sensibly we decided to double check we were secure on the mooring buoy we'd attached to while fixing the anchor - only to discover it was actually a fishing pot. Oops! So the anchor got it's first true test sooner than expected (and passed).

En route to Vulcano the next day, a whole pod of dolphins came to play with us, swimming along under the bow trying to keep up - lots of fun. On arrival in the bay where we would spend the night, we were met with an unpleasant smell... We were busy accusing someone of emptying their waste tanks when we clocked the people wallowing in mud baths and the bubbles coming up through the water and suddenly realised: we're on a volcano - it's sulphur of course. So a couple of blonde moments the last few days; must be the sleep deprivation...

Next stop Sicily!