It felt strange to be finally leaving Corfu but the crew soon got into the swing of things and made sure they were familiar with the safety gear.

Pat took her watch seriously

So did Maddy

Nick did a cracking job on the passage and took a lot of the strain off the skipper – nice one son !

We had a steady North Westerly force 5 to 6 which helped us keep up a good speed and it was soon time to take down the Greek flag and hoist the Italian one

After 63 hours we reached Riposto on the East Coast of Sicily. That’s at the base of Mount Etna. It didn’t look like the volcano was doing much so after a group discussion we all opted to carry on without stopping as we had to get round to Palermo in time for Maddy’s flight home. So we headed North through the straits of Messina and its infamous whirlpools and finally left the Ionian and entered the Tyrrhenian. The Aeolian islands off the North coast of Sicily are all volcanic and we finally dropped a hook at 23.45 on the island of Vulcano. 364 miles non stop – 78 hours.

We had a lazy day on Vulcano watching the locals do what they like to do

And then we did what we like to do.

Next day we got up at dawn and climbed the volcano.

The effort was well worth it .The crater was large, impressive and smelled worse than Nick

The view from the top across the Aeolian islands was spectacular.

Then we pushed off and visited the islands on Filicudi and Alicudi before finally landing on Sicily at Castellamare del Golfo on August 10^th – 477 miles from Corfu.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Maddy and wait for Barry and Margery to arrive for the next leg.