A Slow Charter Sail Through the Fiery Aeolian Islands
Sicily’s volcanic island playground is something to add to your sailing charter bucket list.
The Aeolians were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site 25 years ago, and although that sounds like ancient history, it’s barely a notch on the belt of these islands that have been fuming and snorting along the horizon here for millennia. This volcanic archipelago has hosted humanity for more than 6000 years, and it’s a geologic wonder created by Africa’s slow march north toward Europe. Sailing here was an otherworldly experience.
We chartered from Dream Yacht Worldwide’s Portorosa base on Sicily, which is an island itself right at the tip of the boot of Italy in the Mediterranean. Our Dufour 53 monohull The Big Sleep was ominously named but special in that she had a hybrid electric propulsion system, which we were lucky to play with for the week. It proved to be foolproof with two hours of electric power supplemented by a genset that turned on automatically when the batteries dropped to a 40-percent charge. The good news was that it was easy. The bad news was that we relied on it heavily because the god of wind, Aeolus, for which the islands are named, was absent for the week.
Starting off on the shoulder season in the latter half of September, we had the place nearly to ourselves, but we still chose a counterclockwise itinerary to dodge the rest of the charter convoy. We pointed the bow at Stromboli, 20 miles away on the horizon, and arrived in time to hook up to a mooring under the steaming cauldron. Volcanos rise abruptly from the sea leaving little space for anchoring in reasonable depths, so although the mooring here was expensive (over $100), it was really the only game in town. The moorings come with assistance from a man in a dinghy because the hawsers are so thick, we’d have broken quite a few boathooks trying to hoist them aboard.
That evening, we gazed up at the fireworks 3000 feet overhead. A light whiff of sulfur floated on the breeze, and we could make out the sound of rocks tumbling down Stromboli’s northern face. She was mesmerizing and dwarfed everything in the vicinity with her pyrotechnics going off every 30 minutes.
Not being able to take our eyes off her, we circumnavigated Stromboli the next morning, watching her white plume angle off sharply. The wind up there was good, but it wasn’t making its way down to the water’s surface, so we motored over to Panarea and Salina with their tiny alleys packed with boutiques and eateries serving up rustic Italian food that upscale American restaurants would envy.
Our last stop was the largest island of Lipari where we tied up at a small dock run by what seemed to be an entire family. These mini-marinas are typical in the Aeolians, but be careful when choosing one. We tied to one near a municipal ferry dock, which left us bucking and tossing every time the big beasts came and went. One boat across from us broke a dock line and another a cleat, so these moorages can be a wild ride and are not for the faint of heart or the queasy of stomach.
Lipari is a treat with its 16th century Norman castle, now a museum and monastery. The town is a labyrinth of cobbled streets bursting with boutiques and cafes. Pumice and obsidian are mined on Lipari, so it’s possible to buy jewelry, handicrafts, and even dishes made of these stones. Our last afternoon found us anchored on the southern side of Lipari at Spiaggia Praia di Vinci, a black sand beach overlooking the steam seeping out of the island of Vulcano next door. It’s a great place for a leisurely swim and although only about 30 feet deep, the bottom here is loose and crumbly pumice; so we stayed only for a lunch hook.
Historic Palermo is worth a visit. We stayed a couple of days after the charter to see the Palermo Cathedral, the Palazzo di Normani, and the amazing open-air food markets with their huge selections of capers and local nuts. Everywhere, we found the Testa di Moro, ceramic heads of a man and woman that are part of Sicilian lore which is ghoulish but funny. Presumably, a local girl fell in love with a visiting Moor, but when she learned he already had a wife back home, she killed him and used his skull to plant herbs. How’s that for a romantic deterrent?
The Aeolians rumble, steam, and periodically blow their tops in fiery fury that’s made more dramatic if witnessed from the deck of a boat. I never realized that sailing under a volcano was a bucket list item for me, but now that I’ve done it, I can say it’s a must for anyone seeking to sail someplace out of the ordinary. With a healthy charter trade in the area, it’s an easy box to tick and will make you the envy of dinner conversations for years to come.
~by Zuzana Prochazka
