No sign of an eruption yet! The sun is warm, the sea is blue, the beer is cold and the sand is ......black!!! Well it is a volcano. Personally I don't like black sand. It looks dirty - although I don't think it is. We've moved round to Porto di Ponente around half a mile across land from Porto di Levante (where we were yesterday) - but we sailed round - a lot further - probably 2 miles. Levante is open to the east and Ponente is open to the north west so as the forecast was wind swinging to the E -SE, we thought it best to move.
Ponente is a nicer bay with a beach and a lot more room to anchor although it was busy last night (Saturday) with 20 odd yachts in (all local boats from the mainland come over for the weekend I guess). There is not a lot ashore but it is only 15 mins walk back to Levante - where we will walk this afternoon to post this blog at the internet cafe - and have a beer.
Nice place to anchor but open to the NW which is where the slight swell is coming in from. Fine when there is wind to hold you at the right angle to it but last night the wind died to zero and we had a very uncomfortable night being bounced by the swell with everything creaking and groaning (and the boat as well).
This morning I put on the diving gear and went under to have a good look at the prop. The anodes are fine (no wear at all) but the prop was not opening in both directions so that explains why no "overdrive" (very technical unless you know a 3 blade gori prop). I loosened it up so we will see if that has fixed it. Just a bit of over enthusiastic sea life made a home in the gear cogs. The bottom of the boat is starting to look quite dirty so a lift and a wash is certainly in order. It's probably costing us at least half a knot in boat speed!
There are not many British boats around and not many people understand any English. The odd waiter does - but that is about it. Very similar to the Spanish Rias in that respect. It will be nice to hear some English spoken again. One guy who did speak some English managed to communicate that Untd had lost to Barca - what a shame!
One big bonus of Vulcano seems to be the lack of mozzies. We got hit with them in Palermo with some nasty reactions to some of the bites, but since we left, none! I wonder if it's the sulphur in the atmosphere? Being slightly off the beach helps though. I am taking some interesting photos but without a good internet connection on the boat, it is impossible to upload them. All our connections have been via internet cafes - not easy to post pics. Sometime soon there must be a place we can get a connection on the boat?
The plan now is to stay here at anchor tonight and then ahead of the forecasted strong NW winds on Tuesday, head round tomorrow to Lipari, the main town on the biggest island and go into a marina for 3 nights to ride out the winds and to have a good look in the "must see" museum with relics dating back to 5,000 BC (and everything in between) - bet they don't have a woolly mammoth. If the winds and sea state are ok, we will then go and have a look at the island of Salina later in the week. The anchorages on Stromboli are only any use in very settled weather and there has been too much swell for that with constant gale warnings for the seas 100 mile north of us. We will give Stromboli a miss but may try and sail around it if the winds are the right way.
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