Stromboli, Volcanic Adventures, April 2008

After a couple of weeks of cramming all the winter jobs into a few days we went out for a test sail. Good job we did, as we could feel some excessive vibration as we were motoring. Back at base we found that the nylock (supposedly cannot vibrate undone) nuts had loosened from the coupling of the prop shaft to gear box. One of the nuts was completely undone and was found in the engine bilge. This was probably a result of the fishing net that we hit way back in Portugal. If we hadn't spotted it in time, the prop shaft would have come loose, and we might have sunk – it would have been nasty anyway. So we did  few more days of repairs and checks and then came  a decent forecast (5 days without a storm is a decent forecast in Calabria). Then we were off, leaving poor Martin and Linda on the shore waving us off. They had ordered a part for their engine in nearby Tropea, but the day it arrived, they were informed that 'tomorrow is a holiday' , then a long weekend, and then next week the whole engineering workshop is closed for holiday!!!!
Glad to be out on the water again we headed for the Aeolian Islands. These had beckoned from the horizon all winter, but there was no way we could easily visit by boat or train and ferry as the winter timetables made it impossible. Dolphins entertained us on our afternoon trip towards Stromboli, the constantly active volcano of the island group, known throughout the ages as the lighthouse of the Mediterranean, as its red glow and fireworks could be seen from sea, guiding the ancients towards the Straits of Messina. Unfortunately in 2004 the crater collapsed inside sinking the active part behind the volcano rim, so it is less visible from the sea now. As we approached the island at nightfall we saw a few sparks and explosions on the NW side of the island before cloud hid it from view, plunging everything into the deep dark moonless night. We pottered onwards, thankful for our GPS plotting, threading down between the islands to Lipari (where Odysseus was given his bag of wind by Aeolus, the god of wind), and arrived at daybreak at the small marina of Pignataro. We'd come to this place as research showed it to be the cheapest safe marina in the islands (€30 per night). It is just possible to anchor off Stromboli itself but we wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the boat for several hours to climb the volcano, as the weather can turn nasty very quickly here, particularly this time of year. We spent the day resting, and booking the ferry to Stromboli, the hotel we'd need for the night there, and the trip itself. Everything fell into place, and the next day we headed off on the 7.30am ferry. A rain squall came through as we made the 3 hour trip to Stromboli, with visibility reduced to a few meters and a short sharp chop blown up. We were glad that Matador was safely tied up in a marina, while we were adventuring.
Miraculously the rain stopped and the cloud cleared to a bright blue clear sky as we stepped off the ferry. It was to be the first night in 5 nights that the crater wasn't covered in cloud, so we were really lucky.

The island is very strange, as the population purely exist there to serve the tourists who want to climb the volcano. A few B&B's are straddled along the waters edge on one side of the volcano. On the other sides the volcano disappears straight down into the sea, which is also why there is nowhere to anchor. We checked into our hotel (La Nassa) and grabbed some lunch and picked up some picnic supplies for the evening. Our ascent was booked for 4.30pm and we joined the groups of younger fitter  looking people waiting to be allocated a guide to start the walk up. The information we had been given was to take lots of water, a sun hat, a wind proof layer, warm layer, stout walking shoes, some food and a torch. At that time of year we'd add thermals, gloves and woolly hat and a tot of brandy to that list. To walk to the top you have to be part of an organised trip with a guide, as they had a huge safety shake up after the last serious volcanic eruption when they found that they didn't know how many people they should be looking for.
We set off on the 3 hour climb with our guide Giuseppe. It was a slow steady pace cleverly set to accommodate many levels of fitness. It was tough going and steep but by no means mountaineering. A few people found it too much and stopped by the wayside to return disappointed to the village. It is difficult for the guides above a certain height in the park area as walkers are not supposed to be unaccompanied, but I guess by that time they've worked out those who are already struggling are not going to make the whole ascent.

This is not the place to be, when you look down and see you've dragged your anchor!

We reached the top for a fantastic sunset as the cauldron bubbled and burped at us. We all formed a circle on the rim of the crater and shivered as night rapidly descended. Within minutes our thermals and wind proofs were proving inadequate and it was absolute freezing cold with a biting wind. This would not be the time to be worrying about your boat in the anchorage 900m below!

To the bottom right of this photo is the exploding volcano crater!  

We witnessed a large belch of lava, ash and smoke amongst the constant smaller ones, and after 30 minutes at the summit were pleased to be getting our blood going again with more walking. We were told to turn on our torches and were guided over the back of the volcano down the ash flows. We sort of slid down these steep slippery slopes in a torch lit procession, and we could feel the ash landing on our backs as it was blown off the erupting crater.

It was a beautiful clear starry night, and as we looked back at the groups of torch-bearing walkers descending behind us it was like a train of firefly's snaking down the mountain. We'd been so lucky that the weather had held out for us.
It took 2 hours to descend to the village, and at times a couple of steps from the path would have led to a very rapid descent straight down into the sea. No wonder they don't like people wandering around without a guide.
We rested our legs and nerves with  few well-earned glasses of wine at Bar Ingrid before returning to our hotel to fall into an exhausted slumber. It was not a cheap outing, what with the marina fees, ferries and hotel but we felt it was well worth the effort and cost to have access to such an amazing show.
Someone has laid some mooring off the NE corner of the island now, for which they charge €25 to €50 a night. If you are thinking of visiting Stromboli by boat, this is now an option, but you'd have to have a look at them for yourself to decide if you'd be happy to leave  your boat there for 7 hours while you can see the wind and sea picking up from the NE from 900m above!!!
Next day we took a sore and stiff shuffly walk back to the 11.50am ferry to Lipari. With some time to spare before departure we were able to sit and watch the coming and going of the locals. Nothing moves in a hurry on Stromboli and most veichals are eitherthe 2 stroke APEs or golf buggies. There is also nobody so proud of his uniform or his self importance as an Italian Policeman and they paraded between the ferry and their offices in their new shiny police car complete with flashing light.

Back on the ferry we were reminded why ancient Rome was never known for it's naval conquests -  Italian 'mal de mer' being rife on board, on a smooth sunny day.

After returning to Lipari and the boat. We untied and headed off on a short motor to the the nearby island of Volcano.

This is still active, but in the slowly steaming sulphur-stinking phase of volcano life. We'd gone in search of promised mud pools and bubbling springs in salt water pools to rest our weary limbs.  The mud pools were not yet open (not tourist season yet) and the salt water springs were freezing cold, so it was a disappointment. We had every intention of staying the next day to climb to the volcanic crater, which you can walk across, but we looked at the forecast and saw that there was a 5 day forecast weather opportunity just too good to miss. 

The Ionian Islands, Corfu and Paxos

A sailing holiday within a holiday, 1 May 2008 to 30 July 2008

We had a vague plan to head from the north end of Corfu to Kefalonia or Zakynthos before heading east through the Corinth Canal or around the south of the Peloponnese. All that we read about the Ionian encouraged us to get here early in the season before the crowds and flotillas and charterers made it less enjoyable. We'd been told that by August the bays would be very full as the Italians arrive en mass for their summer holiday. 

Apologies first - we've tried to be brief in writing about our travels, but it never works!!

Ay Stefanos, Corfu

After leaving Corfu Old town, our first anchorage stop was in my name-sake bay Ay Stefanos, at the north east end of Corfu. It was an idyllic place, but a Sailing Holidays flotilla had already beaten us to it. Never mind – there was still plenty of room. The taverna to the right as you look at the beach has prize for the most overpriced and poor quality meal in Greece yet!  You can easily see Albania across the water, and occasionally a Greek patrol boat cruises up and down looking for trouble. At night the ferries that ply this stretch of water produce waves that reach into these eastern bays, making you fall out of bed in the night.

9th May – Petriti, Corfu

A relatively unspoilt fishing harbour with a few tavernas, occasionally visited by a sailing flotilla. 

It was free to stay on the concrete wall, with the bow (front) anchor out and tied to the quay at the stern in the normal Mediterranean manner. Its free because the local businesses benefit from the tourism of sailing boats. There was a free water supply on the quay so we did our laundry too. 

One day the fishing boat came in and gave us a big bag of anchovies. Stu occupied himself for the rest of the day filleting them and we ate anchovies in various recipes for days. 

10th May – Sivota Islands/Mourtos Greek mainland opposite Corfu

This is a beautiful anchorage, very protected from the weather and enclosed, so it feels like you are in a French river. We went ashore to the town to find the port police to attempt to get stamped in and out. They started to get the quadruplicate book out and asked us where we had moored. When we said we were at anchor, they dismissed us with a wave. They told us that if we anchor we should just report to port police once per month for a stamp. This is the advice that others have had but none of the officials are willing to put it in writing! 

While at anchor Stu was fiddling with the anchor hook leaning out over the chain. I looked up in time to see his legs disappear through the bars of pulpit in a perfect dive! He managed to grab the chain as he went, and then the chain hook landed on his head giving him a little gash for his efforts. 

It was the first swim of the season, and he didn't spend long at it. He got out, had a warm shower and got dressed, then realised that his sunglasses had been on the top of his head before 'the accident'. So he had to have the second swim of the season to retrieve them from the bottom!

12th May Lakka, Paxos

After a short motor we arrived at a new island. We had arranged to meet Kate and Davy (Roamer) here and we spent a couple of days catching up with their news since we stayed with them in Malta. 

The bay is pretty and lovely clear water for swimming but the town touristy and priced accordingly so we didn't stay long before we motored around to the west coast. The cliffs are gargantuan and peppered with caves. To the right of the photo you may be able to see the cave that had recently collapsed into a big pile of stones and trees.

14th May Gaios, Paxos

We moved a whole 8 miles today and moored on the quay next to the seaplane dock. This was very convenient for a walk into town, but we didn't really enjoy aviation fuel fumes in the cabin at 7.30 every morning. The manoeuvrability of the seaplanes is impressive, as is the short distance they require for take-off and landing. We were amazed that there was no boat on patrol to clear the area of boats, but it manages to come and go without landing on anyone's head!

The seaplane moors alongside us at Gaios

Feeling that we should do some exercise before the summer arrives and it gets too hot, we got the bikes out and went for a cycle. In the usual mad dog fashion we got organised by around midday just in time for maximum heat and sun! In Paxos you only need 2 gears on your bike, first gear for going up and top gear for going down. There is nothing in between. We went off looking for a nice coastal path, but this involved going over the highest hill on the island first, then exploring every road in case it led us back around the coast – they didn't – just down to a cove and then back up to the same road again! We liked it so much we went and did it again the next day!

We can only spend 72 hours in company with Roamer before we mutually have to have a liver-recovery break, so we waved them off, they went north to Corfu and we went to Mongonisi, a landlocked anchorage at the south end of Paxos. 

Mongonisi, Paxos

20th May Preveza, Greek mainland

After a wonderful upwind sail at 7 knots, we crossed back to the mainland to the busy Greek workaday town of Preveza. It was tempting to stay on the quay, and it rumoured that the port police were yet to start charging. We found out later that the glamorous bars and restaurants on the newly poshed-up waterfront are active and loud until the very wee hours, so we were happy that we'd chosen to anchor a little way off the town and come in by dinghy. 

The weather deserves a mention at this point, only because we had about 2 hours of rain on 22nd May. It soon passed and after an hour everything was dry again. 

We took the dinghy across the busy fairway to have a look at the 3 huge boatyards side by side, Cleopatra, Preveza and Aktio. There must be about 1000 boats in each yard, testimony to the number of people who keep a yacht in the Ionian and have it launched just for 3 months in the summer. We subsequently met a lot of yachties doing just that. We got prices for a haul out and hard standing - all very similar, not surprisingly, and a fraction of the cost it would have been in Italy. Then we thought about the heat and the joys of antifouling when the paint dries on the roller before you can spread it on the boat, and we decided to carry on scrubbing the bottom of the boat from the water, until we winter the boat in Turkey. 

The names Aktio and Cleopatra reflect the historical significance of Preveza, as this was the site of the Battle of Actium in 31BC. The future Emperor Augustus routed the fleet of his adversary Mark Antony who was accompanied by Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, thereby deciding the fate of the Roman Empire and the history of the Mediterranean. 

Preveza stands at the entrance to a large inland sea, called the Ambracian Gulf. We sailed inside and anchored in the north west corner, looking across the 30 mile wide sea. All around us fish jumped out of the water and pelicans swirled around the sky looking for food. 

We wandered ashore and found the road. A short walk found us at the ruins of the Nikopolis (Victory City) founded by Augustus in 30 BC to commemorate his success at Actium. We were about to clamber across the grassy banks to the ruins, when we remembered that the guide book said to watch out for snakes. A little further along the path, we saw a big brown snake (5 ' long and as thick as my wrist) and were very glad that we hadn't gone on a foray into the undergrowth! 

Nikopolis ruins

Can you spot him?

All around us flowers sprung from every crevice, birds chirped and insects jumped. It is an area rich in nutrients and the presence of so much flourishing nature is testimony to the lack of intensive farming and pesticides. 

24th May - Vonitsa, Gulf of Ambracia. 

A lovely laid back Greek town, still waiting for tourism to happen. Free berthing on the town quay which is in the process of having moorings laid. The water is free here, and is straight out of a spring, so the quality is exceptional.

We met another kiwi boat, Kiwi Volant, with Gary and Maria on board. We enjoyed a couple of cheap and delicious meals at the local spiteria – like a BBQ without all the washing up. It has become a regular quest throughout Greece, to search out good spiterias as they are the best value and tastiest food. 

Another Sailing Holidays flotilla arrived and provided an early evening of entertainment as they crossed anchors and bashed into each other and into the quay, broke down, and generally demonstrated their startling lack of experience and knowledge of all things nautical.

This chap really fouled up; he has one anchor chain under his bow, and another between the keel and rudder. After being untangled he left the bay with his tail between his legs, too embarrassed to try again.

A passage plan from Italy to Greece, 28th April 2008

How not to do it!

Goodbye Stromboli

The cruisers who have spent long periods of time in port always seem to have a lot of well-meaning advice for those who've decided to depart. Some Danish friends in Vibo gave us 3 important pieces of information for our trip:
1)Never transit the Messina Straits when the moon is visible in the sky day or night.
2)Always ask the local fishermen before you leave, what the real weather is in the Strait as they are in touch with their colleagues there, and it could be much worse than you imagine.
3)When you find a LIDL stock up for 6months, as you never know when you'll see another.

Well, as we roared downwind towards the Straits of Messina, we had no idea about the moon, and we couldn't converse with the fishermen as we don't speak enough Italian, let alone the local language, however we did have a carefully researched and prepared times and dates of the tidal streams at Messina and we were on course to arrive just after the tide turned southwards, as advised by Rod Heikell in his excellent pilot book. It's not hard to work out– 4h30mins after HW Gibraltar.  As we approached the Strait in mobile phone range of Sicily we plugged the mobile into the laptop, found the Italian meteorology site and looked up the actual wind speed and direction from the weather buoy at Messina. All very modern and simple and clever!

This beats the Solent any day!

So we had a great sail in flat water through the Strait and didn't see a single whirlpool- we were a little disappointed! We watched small fishing boats motor straight for the middle of the charted position of Chrybdis, the main whirlpool and .....nothing happened, he didn't even get sucked into the bowels of the earth -amazing. At one point Scilla, of the Odyssey fame, who lives in a cave on the eastern side, with 12 feet and six long necks with horrible heads that hang down and pluck innocent sailors from their ships.... tried to steal my hat, but I grabbed it back and put it firmly on my head again, wagging my finger ! That told her!
It was already a long day, but we sailed on past Reggio de Calabria, winner of the verruca award for the toe of Italy. We turned the bottom corner of SW Italy in 7 knots and Stuart gripped the wheel grinning from ear to ear. We went on past Rocella Ionica, which we now know has a free marina ( free, yes that's right free and in Italy too!!) and on up the coast towards Crotone. The pilot book makes Crotone sound like a contender for the athletes foot award of the instep of Italy, so we hooked the mobile phone up again and got the most recent forecast, clever eh?

The tippy toe of Italy in the background. We're doing 7 knots but upright and no splashes!

Under several layers of insulation despite the sun !

The calm before the storm

The forecast was SW force 5 for 24 hours followed by calms followed by easterlies for days to come.  This meant we go for it, or rest in Crotone for a week rather than burn diesel and fight the wind (Crotone does have a free harbour wall we found out later). As the wind got up we pointed the boat on the only tolerable point of sail in the resultant boiling seas which, hey presto, pointed us to the bottom end of Corfu. We decided this was some sort of divine message to get on with it, so we set the sails, crawled into the corner of the cockpit and held on tight for the roller coaster/water slide ride of our lives. Thank goodness for Marks and Spencers tinned curry, as you can just slop it in a pan and warm it up, as darkness descended and we took it in turns to ride the 'Black Hole' roller coaster in the moonless night. I found that one of the few benefits of spending the winter rolling in  our marina berth is that I no longer appear to be seasick !

As dawn arrived the wind decreased to a tolerable level and we slopped about in the leftover sea. Within a couple of hours the wind started to rise to greet us from Greece, right on the nose – what an unwelcome greeting to a new country. By this time it was a long way round to change course, so we plugged away for hours and hours the last 20 miles to Corfu. As we rounded the tip of the island and could sail north round the inside we tried to unfurl our genoa (the sail at the front) and it wouldn't undo. This was due to the duck tape that we'd repaired the sacrificial UV strip with, which had undone and stuck to itself the wrong way round. After lots of prodding with long sticks and swear words, Stu climbed wearily into his harness and I winched him up, as he shimmied up the furled sail looking at it murderously with a sharp knife. Two minutes later and the naughty tape was removed and we could unfurl the genoa with blue bits of cloth dangling off and sail again.

Gouvia Marina, Corfu

We'd chosen Gouvia marina as our first destination on Corfu for many reasons.
1)Mostly we wanted a safe thing to tie the boat to so we could sleep off our exertions
2)We needed to wash the boat of salt crystals to half way up the mast and get ourselves washed too
3)We were paranoid about checking into Greece and the pilot book said we could do this at the marina
4)It was rumoured that we could fill our English gas bottles here.

After 2 days, 2 nights and a day at sea, we gratefully handed over our lines to a very helpful Greek lad who spoke good English. 'How much is it here?'  we asked. He said he thought about €35, but 'the office is closed for the day, you must go in the morning'.
The marina is a huge 1000 boat complex alive with all sorts of activity at this time of year as everyone tries to get their boat ready for the start of the season. It has modern facilities and overpriced shops and food outlets. After the washing was done we walked through the boutiques out the door of the compound into the Greek Kondokali village behind. We enjoyed our first experience of a smoky 'spiteria' where lamb and pork are cooked over coals on a spit – served with Greek salad and lots of wine to help us forget the ravages of the last few days. We got chatting to a mad Swedish ex pat who insisted we go along to a local nightclub to 'help' her with her friend, a Norwegian with some sort of degenerative nervous disease. All we really wanted to do was sleep, but she was as mad as a snake, so it was hard to reason. We were treated to the most interesting real Greek dancing that we've seen to date, which looks like 2 cossacks flinging themselves across the room at each other......or it could have been some sleep deprived vision.

Next morning we found the marina office and they requested a whopping €50 per night. 'How many nights will you be staying?'  –' We're off!' we said in unison.
The port police office was closed so we couldn't check in anyway, but we did manage to sort the gas bottles once we found the helpful and resourceful Franz of Force 5 chandlers.  You are able to visit the marina for 2 hours free of charge so we could return and pick up the gas another day. So far we have not had to resort to local gas bottles, despite being told it's not possible to fill UK bottles outside the UK. We have 2 x 13kg bottles which when the first is empty, givs us about 3 months to find a friendly refilling station with the correct attachments. So far so good.

So after achieving only 2 ½ of our 4 objectives at Gouvia we moved onto Corfu town old harbour to search out the port police. These town harbours seem to have no rules of engagement, usually no-one to tell you where to berth, and more fortunately, often no-one to take any money from you either.
This was our first harbour of its sort and still being naïve we asked a NZ boat if we could tie alongside them temporarily. As it turned out Pete and Raye on Saliander were great fun and good company and were happy for us to tie up to their 55 foot beautiful Tayana for several days. They in turn were tied to two old day tripper boats who seemed to be going nowhere. They were headed west towards the Balearics and Corsica, so we swapped information with them, as they had spent a lot of time in Greece and Turkey.

After several trips ashore we finally found the port police and went in to request our 'transit log'. No-one appeared to know what we were talking about, and various officials were called out of their offices and wandered off again muttering and scratching their heads. We seemed to be asking for something very unusual, but as the pilot book states (and other sources) every yacht over 10m must have one and present it at port police offices throughout Greece for the official stamp. No-one has any idea what function it serves, including the port police themselves. Eventually we parted with an arbitrary sum of €44 and were given an oversized, not quite A3 heavy paper document, with 5 pages of spaces for official stamps for whenever you enter and leave a Greek port – despite the fact that we are EU citizens in an EU flagged boat within Greece.  But at least the EU have made them ditch the illegal 'cruising tax'.


Corfu Town is lovely to wander through the narrow street and wide open parks (where the Brits taught them to play cricket apparently). There are plenty of tourist tat shops and bright glaring white people emerging from the daily cruise ships that stop here, but it still has a homely Greek atmosphere. We set about sorting out our Greek phone, hoping to recreate our mobile phone internet access that we had in Italy. After visiting all the mobile phone shops in Corfu with no luck and lots of bewildered staff, we met Xaris at the Vodafone shop who thought he might be able to provide just the thing. Unfortunately none of the Greek networks offer mobile phone data SIMs/packages on a Pay-as-You-go basis. He told us we'd need a Greek address, a credit card, a Greek tax number and to sign up to a monthly contract of €17,  and we could use our existing Italian mobile phone as the modem. We offered up our receipt of one nights stay at Gouvia marina as proof of our address, he fudged our tax number with lots of zeros and the next day we were on contract. It did take 3 days of increasingly desperate calls to the Greek Vodafone helpline, but it worked eventually and has continued to ever since. So, well done Xaris! Our friends tried the following month, and were told that you can no longer get a contract without a Greek tax number, which you can get on the internet, but we all fear what the tax implications of having that number might be!!

Next task was to stock up at LIDL. Unhappily all LIDL  branches are way out of town and we are of course car-less. Getting a taxi back to town kind of makes the savings less worthwhile.
However, we had spotted the happy yellow sign from the sea, so we asked around as to whether it is acceptable in Greece to anchor anywhere you like, and no-one could come up with a reason why not. So we carefully motored into the bay opposite the sign and dropped our anchor as close to the shore as we dared. We took the dinghy ashore at the only likely spot and hobbled through the undergrowth and wayside rubbish to the side of a major road. We crossed 2 lanes of traffic in one direction, then 2 lanes in the other direction and were outside LIDL.

Bearing in mind our Danish friends advice to stock up for 6 months, we filled our trolley to overflowing with cheap beer, fruit juice, water, and other heavy items. Outside the shop we paused for thought. There was no way to take the trolley across the road as several kerbs and central reservations and, needless to say, unrelenting traffic blocked our way. There was nothing for it but to unload the trolley onto the pavement and in relays we negotiated the 4 lanes of traffic, kerbs, central reservation, wayside rubbish and undergrowth, waded out to the dinghy and transferred our loads into it. There was just room for us to get in too, and we gingerly motored our top-heavy dinghy back to the yacht, to unload it on deck, then into our deepest darkest storage lockers.  All this on the equivalent of a hot summers day in England - and you wonder what we do all day?!! In this way we managed about  6 weeks worth of supplies – there was no way we were going back for more.

With all our tasks accomplished, we were ready to move on, but first we had to 'check out' of Corfu and get a matching exit stamp in our Transit Log. We tied up in the commercial port and went into the Port Police office again proffering our oversized document. Again there was head scratching and muttering, officials coming and going, and then we were directed into a small office where a girl who should still have been at school wielded a quadruplicate book and entered all our details into it. She requested the grand sum of 86 cents for 'checking out'. A bit of confusion followed as they don't have any facility to provide change, and I had to return to the boat to rummage around for all the spare cents I could find. We were quite happy to keep them waiting. After returning and paying exactly 86 cents, mostly in small copper coins, we were given one of the quadruplicate sheets and sent to the next office to get the stamp and be written in the big book of coming and going. What a farce! Now we can start our big Greek sailing holiday.