It was hopeless trying to sleep in. The loudspeakers went into action as we got closer to the volcanic island of Stromboli on its way to Katákolo, Greece. Although there was a haze, we could see the active volcano spewing out smoke. Lower down, along the coastline there were villages. The volcano is constantly monitored for unusual activity or tell-tale signs of an impending eruption so the residents are relatively safe for now.
The scenic cruising continued as we passed through the passage between the island of Sicily with views of Messina, and the toe end of the 'boot' shape of Italy - Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria.At some stage, late morning, I had a call from the ship's infirmary asking me to come and help them with a bit of administration. All staff have been given new ID numbers and their paper records had to be changed to the new numbers and I had to check whether staff had had the yellow fever vaccinations. It took quite a while to do the change-over and at the same time put all records into numerical order rather into department and name order. But at least it got done in the end and I was very happy to help.
Tomorrow we arrive in Katákolo, Greece.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Stromboli
Passage between the island of Sicily and the toe end of the 'boot' shape of Italy
