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Sunday, July 8th, Isola Vulcano,
Aeolian Islands, Italy
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It is surprising to be updating the
website from the same location as my last post. After several weeks of
pretty constant moving around, it feels great to sit back and enjoy the now
familiar territory of Vulcano and Lipari, two of the Aeolian Islands that are
separated by a mere three miles. Between a little blow that hit us on
Thursday last week, a certain 8 year-old's birthday party, meeting some really
nice locals, and hooking up with old friends from Badalona, we've had plenty of
excuses to hang out. The only fly in the ointment was the Fourth of July.
While all of you were out celebrating, we were feeling a little lonely being so
far away from home. I'm not fishing for sympathy, only telling you that we
miss you!
We moved over to the island of Lipari on the
third, hoping to find a spot to anchor but winding up in a little marina called
Porto Salvo. We surveyed the area trying to find a suitable place that was
shallow enough for our anchor but to no avail. It turns out that the folks
at Porto Salvo were so nice and friendly and helpful that we were happy to spend
the sixty Euros a night to be there. We wound up staying for four nights,
waiting for the wind and the left over swell to die down. We were docked
right next to Cenou, so the girls were happy. We had planned a birthday
party for Juliana on the fifth and we had lots to do to get ready.
Rike undertook a huge arts and crafts project,
supervising the construction of a homemade papier-mâché piñata. She and
the girls did an amazing job.
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Of course, it took a lot less time to shatter
it to pieces than it did to make it and paint it, but it was definitely the
highlight of the party.
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Additional birthday activities included the
making of the traditional carrot cake, this time with blue and green icing,
water balloon fights, and lots of swimming. Our friend Alex's aunt, a
resident of Lipari, came and enjoyed the festivities with her 13 year old
daughter, Rosalina. We managed to have a great conversation despite my
rusty Italian, so I was pleased and always thrilled to meet locals. Cenou
had a special surprise for the girls to finish off the night.
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Lipari itself is a lively, beautiful town.
It does have its touristy side, but it is mostly Italian tourists so still very
authentic feeling for us. The Aeolian Archeological Museum is housed
inside the old castle. The natural fortress of castle rock has provided a
base for many eras of civilization from the Neolithic age to the Greeks, to the
Romans, to the Normans and the Spanish. The museum contains artifacts of a
stunning variety dating back to 5000 B.C. Many of the treasures are taken
from gravesites that have been uncovered on the island. There are also
several significant ship wrecks in the vicinity whose plunder is also displayed.
I am continually overwhelmed by the amount of history that is hidden in the past
of this region of the world. We are trying to discover it through research
and reading as we go, but I am afraid we are only just scraping the surface.
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Unfortunately, Cenou is still having some
problems with one of their saildrives, so the Dussaud family planned to depart
on Saturday morning for Trapani, on the west coast of Sicily, for repairs.
We had been in touch with our Badalona friends, David and Tamsin on Twice Eleven, and
were expecting them to arrive in the area on Sunday. We were pleasantly
surprised to hear, when we called them on Friday morning as we were trying to
come up with our next destination, that they were just sailing past the island.
They did a U turn and tied up across the dock from us at Porto Salvo.
Seeing David and Tamsin in a cruising
environment is wonderful. They are a British couple who are cruising
indefinitely, much as we are, and very close to our own ages.
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Our paths will diverge here after a short
while, but they will be in Croatia for the next few months and we will
definitely see them there. They have a wonderful approach to the cruising
life, and we have already learned much by exchanging ideas with them.
We came back to Vulcano with them on Saturday
and took another trip to the mud baths and up the volcano. We plan to
really stretch our legs with a passage to Salina, 10 miles to the north, on
Monday. Twice Eleven will have to start moving east towards the Straits of
Messina and we will turn west, heading towards Palermo, the capital of Sicily.
We anxiously await news from Cenou and hope that their repair is quick and
effective so that we can reunite and continue to enjoy our cruising together.
Hobie is doing wonderfully. He's growing
quite a bit, and continues to be affectionate and entertaining for all of us.
We were worried about him straying off the boat while we were at the dock in
Lipari. In fact, he wasted no time in hopping over to Cenou to explore
their boat once again. Fortunately, Claude and Joe were on deck and heard
the splash when he tried to make the leap back to Zia. He fell in between
the boats and swam like mad, right under the dock. Claude did a belly flop
on the dock and grabbed him as he came out the other side. Hobie was much
less curious about getting off the boat after that!
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Next Entry>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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