Volcanoes, especially active ones, are scary. But what about a volcano that’s been erupting more or less continuously for the past 20,000 years? How would you feel cruising to within a kilometer or two from its shore? Now, imagine this . . . what would it be like to be one of the 800 or so residents who live in the shadow of the steam and gas clouds that puff out of its crater every few minutes?
As many of you know by now, Ursula and I were on a 54-day cruise last spring. On April 13 our traveling home, Holland America’s MS Prinsendam, pulled alongside Italy’s famous Stromboli Volcano. Stromboli stands an impressive 3,034 feet (926 meters) above sea level, but actually rises an astounding 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) above the floor of the Tyrrhenean Sea off the west coast of Italy near the Strait of Messina.
Unfortunately, conditions were far from ideal for photography that morning. We were initially positioned almost directly into the sun, the atmosphere was extremely hazy, and the sky was completely obscured by a solid overcast layer. Nevertheless I was determined to record this event as best I could even though I did not have my best equipment with me and the camera I was using had neither manual exposure capability nor the ability to save files in raw format for optimum post-processing. The following photographs are the results of those efforts. They include the volcano, the villages on the north coast of the island, and the nearby Isola di Strombolicchio with its lighthouse and interesting horsehead-shaped rock outcropping.
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