THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS: 4th - 7th July 2011

After leaving Milazzo we sailed across to the Aeolian Islands. We spent 2 nights at Isola Volcano and climbed the still bubbling volcano admiring the view of Makoko moored in the bay below. The brilliant yellow sulphurous rocks on the rim were quite spectacular.

We explored the islands of Lipari and Filicudi before heading back to Cefalu on the Sicilian coast. The town has a spectacular setting nestling below a cliff on a headland with a long sandy beach stretching west. The cobbled streets led up to the cathedral which glowed like gold in the late afternoon sun.

   The remote island, Isola Ustica was our jumping of point for our passage to Sardinia. We moored up to the ferry jetty which was very rolly when ships went past. Dave got up in the middle of the night when the fender on the  boat beside us knocked the lid of our barbie. As he was going ashore to adjust the ropes, a swell rocked the boat and he overbalanced on the gang plank and despite all his exercising could not hang onto the back shroud and fell into the water dropping an expensive coil of rope which sunk to the bottom Luckily, with a successful dive for the rope the next day there no damage other than pride and small lacerations on his hand.

With strong north westerly’s forecast later in the week we decided to set sail for Sardinia. Unfortunately no wind meant motor sailing the first 50nm then when the wind freshened to 8 knots from the stern we put up the sails and used the unique Amel pole system to hold out the headsail. We plodded along at 3 & 4 knots; the slow speed was made worthwhile when the fishing line suddenly went buzz; we all thought it was just a piece of plastic as we could not see any fish jumping out of the water! But a silver glistening shape proved us wrong and Jan managed to land a 12 kilo yellow fin tuna. Being the fisher woman I had the job of cleaning up the bloody mess on the deck and preparing the fish for eating. As an experiment I marinated some flesh in lemon juice, garlic and ginger which was quite delicious.