Malta

I left you all dangling in Malta back in May. Well, we hung around Valetta for a bit longer, waiting for the weather to settle, and singing in the odd bar here and there with Paul and Hilary (PAX NOSTRUM), Colin and Moira (TASMAN), and Terry (LIBERTINE).

Jamming in March 19^th Bar.

David, Beth and Bryn tracked down The Pub – where Oliver Reed drank scary amounts of alcohol before dropping dead.

Paul, Paul’s Dad, B&B outside The Pub.

Back on the boat, Bryn got into Airfix modelling a Hawker Hurricane, hindered by his Dad.

Dad, if you’re going to ‘help’, make sure that you stick the wings on the right way up.

‘Plink’

What is one of the most distressing sounds known to cruiser-kind? ‘Plink’ This usually means that some nut/bolt/screw/most useful screwdriver/favourite spanner has just gone into the water. In this case, it was my Reactolite glasses. David – who has been trying to persuade me to wear one of those Dayglo, round-the-back-of-the-head, floating glasses straps since we left – was not amused. My argument is that they are uncomfortable, they make my ears stick out and they slip off the arms of the glasses anyway. I’m not going to sail around the world with sticky-out ears. To be fair, this is the first pair of glasses that has gone swimming in the 3 years that we have been away. I have now given in though, and have tied my glasses on with an attractive bit of black string that Beth has decorated with beads (bet you can’t wait to see the photo...).

St Peter’s Bay

When the forecast hinted at a half-decent break in the weather, we set off south to explore some of Malta’s anchorages. We stopped off for lunch in St Peter’s Pool – a rocky inlet surrounding turquoise water. Legend has it that St Peter baptized some of the locals here.

St Peter’s Pool.

Birzebugia – Pretty Bay

We anchored in Birzebugia – Pretty Bay.

The beachfront in Birzebugia.

It was quite pretty as long as you kept looking at the beach and ignored the container port behind, that has obviously been built since the bay was named.

In fact, we spent more time watching the comings and goings in the container port, and David indulged in a little light ‘tug spotting’. While this might have been a busy commercial port, the water was crystal clear – not a plastic bottle or bag in sight. Malta and Gozo are heavily into recycling and it shows!

Spot the tug.

B&B 2-up on the kayak.

Passage to Sardinia

We left Birzebugia fully intending to call into the famous Blue Lagoon anchorage in northern Malta, but as the wind was just right, we decided to head for Sardinia instead. 4 days and 3 nights later (348 miles), we tied up in Marina del Sole, Cagliari. It was a good passage as we managed to sail about half of it, and it was made even better by the fact that B&B did the 09:00 to 12:00 watch together, meaning that we got 6 hours sleep instead of 3. No fish, but we did catch a seagull for a change, and we saw lots of dolphins – striped dolphins, which we haven’t seen before.

Cagliari

It was really strange being back in Cagliari! Nothing had changed (I tell a lie, there were new shower curtains, and we missed Julia). It was good to catch up with old friends – Gary (WILD OATS), Big Dave (BRUMBY), Stephen and Anne (WANDERING DRAGON), Lynne and Les (CELTIC), Tony and Di (NAHISKA), Paulo, and ‘young’ Antonello, Max, Antonello, and the marina hounds. We had a music night, a BBQ, and B&B treated us to pizza.

Acoustic jam: Paulo and ‘young’ Antonello (Antonello is using a glass slide).

Acoustic marmalade: Gary, Paulo and ‘young’ Antonello.

B&B treated us to pizza in the Boat Restaurant.

The weather blew up just to remind us that it could, and we sat out 50 kts of wind and gusts up to 75 kts for a couple of days. B&B played with 2 boys (Antoine, aged 9 and Paul, aged 3) from a French boat (LANPAUL) stuck in Cagliari with engine trouble. We had Bryn’s front teeth checked and X-rayed (the ones he broke in Greece) and the fillings replaced. Lots of people passing through Cagliari are headed for Messolonghi for the winter; it’ll be interesting to hear how they get on...

Leaving Cagliari

We only stayed a week in Cagliari – staying any longer would have been dangerous as it was just too comfortable! We picked up no less than 3 (yes 3) lazy lines around the prop as we were trying to leave the berth – lazy lines that the marina staff had been ‘sorting out’ the day before. Luckily there was a diver in the water ‘sorting out’ lazy lines on the next pontoon and he had us free in a jiffy (well, 20 minutes of cutting through ropes, actually).

Pula and Carloforte

We anchored in Pula overnight (you remember, the Roman remains and the beheading of St Efisio on the beach...), before ending up on the quay wall in Carloforte overnight. There was a tuna festival in full swing when we got to Carloforte, with decorated stalls, hoardes of people, and a cracking band playing until 2 am. A German boat moored next door had caught a large tuna on their way from Menorca, and they gave us a huge chunk.

The tuna festival in Carloforte.

Next stop: Menorca.