Overnight to Stromboli

We left Aniko and Anna in Amalfi, so it's back to the small family again. We miss them very much. It was 20 years since we had seen Aniko, but it felt like yesterday, we haven't changed at all.
This was our first overnight crossing and the girls were not keen. Not keen at all. Left at 8am, had some hours of glassy water, then enough wind to put the sails up for the rest of the day. Just before sundown we were joined by our first friendly group of dolphins. They were very small. Sabine absolutely loved it, they stayed under the bow for half an hour, and did some special tricks and all! Just checked the species, and according to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, "Striped dolphins ….. do not commonly ride the bow"! so we were especially lucky!

The night was peaceful. Plenty of ships to notice, but no dramas. Drama there was in the morning though, as my other crime (apart from sailing at night) was to bring us to an active volcano for breakfast! We stopped the motor and sat on glassy flat water under Stromboli. It gave the occasional bang and shot smoke for us, also dropped some ash and rocks down it's slope to the sea. We swam before breakfast with 600m under us and a volcano above! Pretty special.