• A neat and very big marina / resort. Channels all over the place, holiday houses, shops and restaurants. Although we wondered why you would rent a house there (there is no village or city but only this enormous marina), we were still happy that the shoreline is not harbor-like but decorated with palms, channels, bungalows and inexpensive restaurants. Suitable surroundings for the first and last night of our trip!
• The supermarket in the marina. It`s rather small, but still well equipped. They know that people do shopping for the whole week of a sailing trip, so they keep their stocks high. Problem is that it`s said to be 20% more expensive than supermarkets in neighboring towns. If you do not have a car – it`s rather difficult to supply your boat anywhere else, so consider a good research before and calculating the taxi to and from the market.
• After ‘moving in’ (swift and easy), unpacking, supplying the yacht and having a shower, we opened a few bottles of wine and went to try the local restaurants. Pizza was delicious as well as Vino Di Casa, so, we ended up being very merry and well prepared for the following first day of sailing.

• We started the first sailing day with a gorgeous breakfast (fried eggplant with onion in omelet) prepared by our on-board hobby chef (Matthias, we love you!).
• Marty.nica is a wonderful 44ft yacht (built 2008), kept in very good shape, and rather fast (Beneteau). We had almost no wind in the morning, but ended up with 18kn of beam reach wind in the afternoon. Martynica did her best and we reached 8.4 kn of speed.  🙂
• We made a lunch stop on the southern side of Volcano island and went snorkeling in azure waters.
  Memo: There is a promising beach bar, so next time when sailing around the Aeolian islands, we should leave the marina already on Saturday and have a drink or two on the southernmost beach of Volcano.
• The Aeolians are all volcanic area, thus famous for their black beaches!
  Besides using the pumice to scrub off old skin of our heels, we also enjoyed fooling around with the unusual consistency of the black pumice-sand.

• Waking up before sunrise was tough. But we really wanted to see Sciara del Fuoco one more time, as long as it was still a bit dark. This time from the sea!
• Unfortunately we had to find out that the view during the day is much less amazing than during the night. You can hardly see the Street of Fire, only the upper third (as the glow is simply gone). Still, it’s scary and impressive – but not after you’ve seen it in the dark!

• After darkness had fallen, we witnessed our first volcanic eruption! Stromboli greeted us from a distance, and even though it was around 30nautical miles away, it was clearly visible. No wonder it was named the lighthouse of the Mediterranean!
• With our bellies full and our eyes amazed, we hiked down to the city to complete the day with a beer. Unintendedly meeting gender stereotypes, the girls were the first ones back on Marty.nica. However, not being boring, they seized the opportunity and had a swim in their birthday suits. …feeling like giggly 13 year-olds again.
• Falling asleep, we were all wondering how it is possible that this was only the first day of our trip!

• As advised, we visited the mud baths on Vulcano island (only 2€) on an empty belly, straight after waking up. The ground there is partly so hot, that it is not recommendable to go there barefoot (yes, a lack of planning on our side!). We covered ourselves with the highly mineralized (and thus healthy – but nonetheless stinky!) sulfur-mud. Afterwards, we felt as if we had bought our skin one size too small.
• We swam back to the yacht and – again – Matthias made us happy by preparing pancakes for the crew! Pancakes on the yacht?! Yep… God bless him 🙂

• Sailing from Lipari town, we had very good side wind and met a galley on the way. We stopped on the islands north-eastern shore at the White Beach (which is actually grey – possibly from volcanic ashes). We were supposed to find slides in the Pumice rock, so sleek that we could slide down, directly into the sea (acc. to Lonely Planet!). There was something like a slide, but it was not sleek, not going into the water, and basically looking as if you’d tear your a** open if you would try to slide it.

• Before leaving Panarea, we enjoyed French toasts (no, for a change not prepared by Matthias! Thank you D!), snorkeled to the shore for yoga and saw amazing underwater life on the way (octopus, squid, starfish, eel and other colorful creatures).
• Powerful beam reach wind allowed us to reach Stromboli in good pace. It was nice to see Stromboli grow on the horizon. We had some strong gusts when we were close to the island and could feel the amount of ash in the air.
• We arrived, dropped anchor and started to feel suspicious: Big black clouds covering the summit and so much ash in the air that our yacht looked like a Dalmatian.

• Waking up before sunrise was tough. But we really wanted to see Sciara del Fuoco one more time, as long as it was still a bit dark. This time from the sea!
• Unfortunately we had to find out that the view during the day is much less amazing than during the night. You can hardly see the Street of Fire, only the upper third (as the glow is simply gone). Still, it’s scary and impressive – but not after you’ve seen it in the dark!

• We did the way back to Marty.nica’s home marina almost all on engine, as we had no wind. However, being a bit hangover and ending our trip, these conditions kind of fit the mood… And it gave us the chance to use the autopilot and climb the mast or nap in the shade.
• For our lunch stop we stayed in a really beautiful bay. Our climber Nico scaled some rocks and jumped from quite a height into (once more) Azure waters, we snorkeled there and ate Freddy’s amazing pasta.
• We arrived in Portorosa at sunset and ended the trip with a nice ‘last supper’ and going to bed early. It was a really intensive trip and none of us could believe that it had only been a week. The place, the weather conditions and Marty.nica was great! And greatest of all was our gorgeous crew!
  Looking back to this time almost two months later, it still hurts a bit that this truly wonderful week had to end. But that just means doing it again! ASAP! 😉

• We did not manage to visit the 2 remaining islands from the archipelago. They are the smallest but still interesting.
• On Alicudi there seems to be a nice grotto and some cliffs to explore. A nice beach to anchor and a small settlement to eat out.
• On Filicudi, the furthest and smallest of islands, are no streets at all. All the houses are on the side of the mountain, people use donkeys to carry goods around and there are endless steps. It`s difficult to moor there as shallow water is very limited, therefore tourism is scarce. That makes it even more worth a visit!

The seven Aeolian Islands are just north of Sicily and all of them were formed by tectonic activity, thus, they all are volcanoes (just not all of them active anymore). The remains of volcanic activity are on most of the islands in the form of hot springs, mud baths, sulfur exhaust or some underwater bubbles… One of them – Stromboli – is still active with a regular lava flow and even more regular eruptions. All the islands` beaches are made of black, fine, glittering sand. While walking around the cities, you mainly see old houses, narrow streets, colorful flowers, laundry being dried outside and generally lots of green – thanks to the very fertile volcanic soil. The food is delicious (as almost all over Italy), people are friendly and speak English with a charming Italian accent. While sailing Aeolian Islands winds are steady, the sea is warm, marine life is amazing and the sun shines happily ever after. 😉

• Even in high season, not too many tourists.
• Marinas only in 2 places (Lipari and Salina), very expensive in high season, but still poor facilities.
• Good holding anchor spots (mainly in mud), no charges for anchoring.
• Some buoy fields (reasonable only in unsettled weather, cause of good anchoring conditions).
• Steady winds.
• Azure blue waters, perfect temperature, amazing sea life.
• Amazing vegetation and erupting volcanoes!
• Laid-back pace of islanders.
• Exceptionally tasty food.
• …Did I mention inf…credible Stromboli?