We were on the move back to France after dropping the Winters off in Corfu, Greece. We sailed first to Leuca, Italy, and then on to Crotone, Rochelle Ionica, and back through the Straits of Messina. Our timing was good going through the straits. We had both the current and wind with us again. After a night in Scilla, we took off for the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. They are a tricky place to sail in because it is very deep and rocky around the islands, which makes anchoring difficult. We spent a few days waiting on the weather to become more favorable to cross over to Sardinia. It was very hot on the boat (96 F during the day) as southern Europe suffered under an extreme heat wave.

We spent 4 days on Isola di Vulcano and Lipari in the Aeolian islands while a strong mistral blew from the northwest. There were lots of boats in the islands and only a couple of protected anchorages. It was crowded. The day after the mistral blew through we hiked to the top of the volcano on Isola di Vulcano. We had incredible visibility because of the clear, dry air and could easily see the Italian mainland, more than 60 miles away. After a few days there, we needed to continue on our trek back to France. We sailed over to the north coast of Sicily and then sailed 80 miles west to a small bay north of Palermo, Sicily to use as our jumping off point for Sardinia. It is the holiday season here and the Italians were still partying loudly in the clubs on the beach when we got up at 5 am to take off for Sardinia.   We had a very nice 200 mile sail across the Tyrrhenian Sea to town of Arbatax, on the east side near the middle of the island.