We sailed up to Vulcano, as per usual the wind wasn’t being very kind to us and was more westerly than predicted so we had to tack a few times to get to our destination. We came to Vulcano in 2005 but only spent 1 night here on our way to Sicily. Then we anchored on the west side but today due to the wind direction we had to choose the anchorage on the east to be protected from the wind and swell. We arrived and anchored with a couple of other boats - the bay is shallow near the sulphur springs, there is then a narrow band which is a good depth to anchor in before it gets very deep quickly.  There isn’t actually much space to anchor as moorings have been put in on the northwest side of the bay, the anchorage is near the ferry dock and consequently got a lot of wash from their very frequent passages in and out of the port, at times there was one leaving as another waited to dock so it wasn’t the nice calm peaceful anchorage we had hoped for. near the shore there were some sulphur springs so the bay had a lovely bad egg smell to add to its appeal 😂. 

Sulphur spring bubbling away in front of Innamorata and another ketch.

Vulcano is a small volcanic island that contains 4 volcanic calderas the biggest being Vulcano della Fossa which is one of Italy's 4 active volcanoes, it last eruption occurred over the period of 1888-90, it has remained active with steaming vents and bubbling mud baths. 

We beached the dinghy to go and have a bit of a walk around the town and find the path to Vulcano della Fossa however it was closed when we got there- a red light indicated that you can only walk up the volcano  before 10.30 and after 16.00 from 1st April - they probably don’t want people climbing in the heat of the midday sun? so we had to save that walk for another day! We found a couple of shops and the mud baths but these too were closed - we didn’t fancied covering ourselves in mud 😂.

After a few days the wind changed direction and we were able to move round to the anchorage on the other side of the island and get away from the ferry wash and unhealthy sulphur gas.