Fai Tira heads out of the Messina Straits for the Vulcano Island. 38:25.00N 14:57.69E

 

16^th – 17^th   July 2011

 

We left Reggio Calabria early to try and get along the strait before the wind increased.  The wind was blowing but it was not as strong as it was the previous evening.  We headed north to the narrowest part and encountered some amazing currents and whirl pools.  The pilot book warns of these and when we were going at 8 knots over the ground we realized that we could encounter one at any time, fortunately we didn’t. What we did encounter were lots of ferries crossing to Sicily and lots of gin palaces heading to the islands for the weekend.

 

 

 

There were 2 massive redundant electricity pylons towering over the narrowest part of strait.  The strait is about half a mile wide at its narrowest.

Once out of the strait the wind died but we managed to motor sail a few hours with the engine on tick over.

 

The Island of Vulcano actually has a Volcano on it and we could see it smoking as we entered the anchorage. The anchorage was quite busy with weekenders from the mainland but we managed to squeeze in a gap next to a large tour boat that I hoped would be leaving about 5pm.  It did so we had lots of swinging room for the night.  All around us the water was bubbling with hot spring water and when we dived in it was like bath water, lovely and warm. The only problem was that these springs also produced sulphur which was OK when the wind was blowing it away but at night when the wind dropped it infiltrated the boat and stunk like rotten eggs.

 

We went for a walk around the town and discovered the MUD baths very close to where FT was anchored,   These smelt even more of rotten eggs but people were plastering the mud all over themselves.  The village was quite pretty but very touristy, we wandered around and found a small supermarket.

 

The next morning we decided to walk up the volcano before it got to hot.  We woke at 6am and headed off.  We were surprised to see a lady sitting at stall taking entrance money at the beginning of the trek up, especially as it was so early.  The trek to the top was quite hard as we were walking on ash which rolled back when you stood on it but we were in the shade of the mountain so it was fairly cool.

 

 

Here is a sign warning of the dangers.

The views as we walked up were spectacular. The path even changed from ash to soft stone for a while to make the walking easier

 

 

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We arrived at the lip of the crater to be rewarded with spectacular sights and colours. The gases were rising from holes in the side of the crater wall and we started out walk around the edge.

 

Gas was coming out of holes about 6 inches across.  I got quite close but stayed up wind as not to get poisoned.

 

 

The bottom of the crater looked quite solid and some brave souls has written their names with rocks there.  We declined but might photoshop our names in later.

 

When we got to the highest point we built our own little cairn and yet again I thought of Phyllis and how she would have loved this place.

 

We headed on down and wondered how long it would be before this mountain erupted again.  Lets hope not today!!!

 

 

On the way back to the village we saw this Telecom van.  I thought it would be a great addition to the BT fleet.

We walked past a fresh fish shop so I said to Becky “how about BBQed fish for dinner?”  “That sounds good” she said, so we went in and choose two fairly small fish.  The monger asked us if we wanted them filleting and we agreed.  He then passed up the fish with the bill 25€!!!!. (about £22) ‘What’ we said!! A man who could speak English explained they were 28€ a kilo.  We handed them back and apologised and did a runner.  We returned to FT still speechless.

 

The afternoon saw us hiring a quad bike to explore the islands interior.  We arrived at 4pm and found out it was only 3pm.  We hadn’t realized we were now in a different time zone from Greece. No wonder we were the only ones up the Volcano at 5.30 in the morning.

It was the first time on a Quad bike for Becky and she loved it especially when driving.

 

We headed down to a beach of black sand which was lovely but there was nowhere to buy ice creams.

 

We got back to the FT after a great afternoon and were boarded by a couple who were travelling around the world on a steel boat. The BWR members might remember them, the boat is called Joceba and the couple are Spanish / French with a 4 year old boy called Angelo.

The distinctive yellow painted steel boat called Joceba.  The couple explained how they had been attacked by pirates crossing the Indian Ocean alone. To repel them the guy (I can’t remember his name) came on deck in full military fatigues waving a hunting rifle.  He said he was prepared to fight it out with them rather than be taken!  The pirates waved an American flag at them and followed for some 3 hours at a distance before they eventually headed off.  They were in a big wooden fishing type boat, and had a couple of high powered Skiffs on board.  This happened just after Quest had been taken.  It was obvious to Becky and me that his wife was still traumatised by what happened.  We went to bed reflecting on what could have been.

 

Pete and Becky.