On volcanoes

Arrivederci Palermo

As we were getting ready to sail from Palermo, the next day's weather forecast sounded strong. From the south. Further away from the coast the wind would come from the north. In other words, offshore winds on the route we were to sail. But strong winds, which blow down from high mountains and are met by onshore winds a few nautical miles from land, are no joke.

"Wait until it's over," was Ben's advice.

When the wind had died down, we left Palermo. In no wind and almost flat water we slid for motor towards Cefalú along the spectacular coast. After a few hours the wind came. It was against. The two weeks in Palermo had left its mark. Also on Heron. The bottom, which had been cleaned in Ottioulu, was again overgrown. It reduced speed and increased diesel consumption. We chewed against electricity, wind and waves with 20% less speed and a probably correspondingly higher consumption of diesel.

The marina in Cefalú was almost empty when we breathed in the late afternoon. Marina was perhaps a nice word for the floating bridge that guest boats could dock at. The bridge was completely unprotected from waves from the east. If it blew up, it would not be nice to lie here. But what the marina lacked in protection and comfort was so amply compensated by the view of the mountains and cliffs. Great to be out in nature again. During the evening, several boats arrived. When it got dark, the floating bridge was fully occupied.

We left Cefalú the next morning and sailed further east on. Nu mod Capo d'Orlando-

"ETA 17.38" we wrote in an SMS to Jean & Christian when we left Cefalú the next morning. Jean & Christian we had met in Palermo. They had sailed to Capo D'Orlando a few days before. A few years ago, they had sailed around the world. Now they were planning another circumnavigation of the globe. This summer they were on their way to Montenegro. Here they would put the boat for the next few months.

"We are in place at 17.35 to greet you »Jean answered witty our SMS. (ETA means expected arrival time and is quite uncertain over longer distances.

When it was 17.35pm we were some distance from the 300 meter high cliff that falls down towards the sea off Capo D'Orlando.

We sent a new SMS

«ETA 18.23. The wind is right in the nose. 16 knots with 24 knots in the breaths »

and got the answer

"OK. We are on the bridge at 18.21. Win 3 knots here »

When we got fired off Capco D'Orlando across and got on the luv side of the big rock, the wind lied to 3 knots. We called the port office on the VHF. At the harbor entrance we were greeted by a 'worm megiatore' in an inflatable boat and directed to the available space Jean had reserved for us.

Capo D'Orlando

During the Second Punic War, the Romans deported 4.000 inhabitants of the Greek colony of Agathyrnum to southern Italy. The inhabitants worshiped the god of savagery, Dionysus, and were rather unruly. In southern Italy, the Romans hoped that the unruly people would give the Roman enemy number one Hannibal as much trouble as they gave the Romans in Sicily.

Back was a small and insignificant fishing village that, with the introduction of Christianity, changed its name to Capo d'Orlando.

Under Mussolini, the city got its own station on the railway line between Palermo and Messina. It created growth. Today, Capo d'Orlando has approx. 13.000 inhabitants. A 10-kilometer white sand beach, the Nebrodi Park and the Aeolian Islands make it a popular holiday destination. During the summer months, the population triples. Tourism is today one of the city's most important sources of income. Despite the relatively few permanent residents, the city's basketball team 'Orlandina Basket' is among Italy's and thus Europe's best.

Capo d'Orlando is also known for its early revolt against the mafia. As early as December 1990, the association ACIO was founded. The purpose was to help businessmen reject the mafia's demands for protection money. The association still exists. Reportedly, it inspired other cities to similar actions.

A few years ago, the construction of a new marina started, partly financed by EU funds.

The marina, which can accommodate over 500 boats, was inaugurated in 2017 and is located almost 4 kilometers away from the city. A bit of a deseret as Jean had SMSed us. But the distance to the city didn't really matter that much.

On the marina grounds was a supermarket, a few cafes, restaurants and shops. If you wanted to go into town, you could get one of the friendly staff at the port office to call Gabriella. She drove guests to and from the city in her car for two euros.

When we had been a few days in Capo D'Orlando we were visited by Jan and Mette. They were on vacation and lived in a small town close to the marina. A strange coincidence. Carl and Jan are friends of children and young people. Except for a single meeting a few years ago, they had not seen each other for over 40 years. We spent three cozy days together and experienced some of Sicily from the land side in their rental car.

Land leave

When Jan and Mette had gone home, we rented a car ourselves. First drove to the Porto Rosa holiday and marina park. It was big and artificial. Very large and very artificial. We quickly agreed that this was not where we would put Heron for the summer. We took the highway and drove towards Taormina and Naxos on the east coast. The road was potholed in some places, but otherwise nice to drive on. When we got to Messina, there was suddenly an advanced network of roads, most of all reminiscent of a highway network in an American metropolis.

After a night in Naxos, we continued towards Siracusa further south and found our way to the old town of Ortigia. The city was one of the main cities in ancient Greece. Magna Grecia, as the Romans called the great power of the day. It was here that Archimedes lived and formulated many of the laws on which the physics and mathematics of our time are based. In the early 90s, a renovation of the city began. Today, it appears well-preserved, like many of the other old towns in the major cities on the Spanish, French and Italian Mediterranean coasts.

After a few days, we drove back to Heron in Capo d'Orlando.

On volcanoes 

The Aeolian Islands are located northeast of Capo D'Orlando. The islands were created during volcanic eruptions that lasted 260.000 years and sent lava from the earth's interior up to the earth's crust, which lay at 3.600 meters below sea level. Today, only the islands of Stromboli and Vulcano are active. Stromboli has been active for the last 3.000 years and is the world's most active volcano. Vulcano, from which the word volcano is derived, is categorized as dormant and had its last eruption over 200 years ago.

The archipelago has a population of 15.000 permanent inhabitants. The vast majority, almost 12.000, live on Lipari, which with an area of ​​37 KM2 is the largest of the seven islands. Tourism is the main occupation, but also fishing, viticulture and pumice mining contribute to income.

It was on the Aeolian Islands that the god of the winds, Aeolus, gave Odysseus and his crew winds from the west that could eventually bring them home to Ithaca. Upon departure, Odysseus received a bag of Aeolus. The crew thought it contained a treasure that Odyssues would keep to himself. When they had sailed for many days and had Itacha in sight, they snuck in to open the bag. Out came all the other wind directions that led Odysseus and the crew back to the Aeolian Islands.

After a couple of hours of sailing, we reached Vulcano. For this we had sailed with a hydrofoil from Milazzo with Jan and Mette a few weeks earlier. We had spent an afternoon on the island. Watch the smoke seep from the top of the crater. Was surprised by the sulfurous nauseating smell of rotten eggs. Walked past the mud bath that enterprising people had fenced in so visitors could be charged entrance and bathed from the beach, where hot springs suddenly flowed up from the bottom like a natural jazucci.

Now we sailed along the western side of the island up to the narrow and short strait to Lipari and further along the eastern side.

On our starboard we could see Stromboli until we changed course to dock the marina Pignataro, located in a bay just north of the main town of Lipari.

We had not lain long in the marina before a man came out on the bridge said

«Well I thought I saw a Danish flag »

It was Kim. He and his wife Lene were berthed with their boat The Swan a little closer to land on the bridge. Like us they had sailed across Europe. By the time they had reached the Mediterranean, they had intended to sail home next year. But when spring had come , they had changed their plans. The course had been set east until they reached Greece. Here they had spent a year. Now they were finally on their way home.

In the evening we went over to the beach. Bathed and then afterwards a procession of half-grown children in white robes, women in dark dresses and men in white shirts. Both with a wide red cross band on the upper body. In the middle, a priest walked under a canopy held by a couple of men. The entourage stopped in front of a picture of the Virgin Mary. Here the priest recited a prayer. Then the procession sang a song, moving further down the street now followed by singing spectators. 

The next day we took advantage of the marina's offer to take a taxi into town for free. The driver, a young woman, told in good English that she was 'very busy' in the summer, but that there was nothing to do in the winter. At all.

In the city's main street we met Kim and Lene. They had rented a car. Along with them, we drove a little bit out of town to a restaurant. Here we had lunch and enjoyed the view of the active volcano Stromboli and the other two islands of Salina and Panarea.

The next morning we followed the Swan over to the island of Salina. Here we found an anchorage close to land, where according to the weather forecast there would be shelter for the next XNUMX hours.

We found a bright spot at the bottom of the five meter deep water. Light spots are sandy bottoms, which the anchor will bite well into and be easy to get up from, Kim and Lene had explained to us. Late in the afternoon we were picked up by Kim in the Swan's rubber boat. We were rowed ashore. Went along the small street towards the water. Here was a discreet, relaxed and almost fashionable atmosphere. We had dinner at a restaurant. Had a nice evening. Told stories and heard about Greece that it would be foolish of us to skip now that we have come this far.

The Mediterranean darkness sank and in rumbling darkness Kim rowed us all back to Heron in the dinghy, which to say the least lay heavily in the water.

In the distant darkness, a red pillar of fire stood up in the air for a few minutes. Strange. 10 minutes later the phenomenon repeated itself. No doubt. It was Stromboli, the Mediterranean Lighthouse, that sent red-hot lava high into the air.

The next morning we could fully feel the feeling of freedom Troels Kløvedal describes when he gets up in the cockpit early in the morning, feels the calm and silence, jumps naked in the water and swims a walk around the boat in the clean clear water.

Shortly after our morning swim there was life on The Swan. The anchor was pulled up and we said goodbye to Kim and Lene, who had 10-12 hour sailing ahead of them to the Italian mainland.

Breaking news

 When we pulles our anchor a few hours later, we heard a thundering. Strange. There was not a cloud in the sky. It had to be an eruption on Stromboli.

We sailed back to Capo D'Orlando. Anchored up off the beach west of the harbor. Bathed, ate a late lunch and then sailed into the harbor.

Shortly after we had moored, we received an SMS from Kim.

"Have you read the news? There has been a huge eruption on Stromboli. Are you still anchored at Salina? »

And quite right. The news had already hit the organized media on the web.

There had been two very powerful explosions.

One hiker was reported dead, another seriously injured and a dozen tourists had thrown themselves into the sea in panic.

"No" we replied "We visited Capo d'Orlando an hour ago"

Spring sailing ends 

The next few days we made Heron ready to come ashore. Saturday morning we sailed to the yard. A few employees stood ready. A few minutes later, Heron was picked up. We said goodbye to Marco and his father, who is the manager of the yard, got Gabriella to drive us to the station where we took the train to Naxos.

Here we met in the evening with Daniel & Emilie and our youngest grandson Luva, who the day before had turned seven months old.

We spent the next 1 1 / 2 week together. Experienced much more of Sicily, took the train to Syracuse. From there we went to Catania where we all flew home to Denmark.

This springs sailing in the Mediterranean had ended.