Tuesday 19^th May – Mgarr Marina, Gozo

36:01.556N 14:17.925E

The wind stayed away all night and so when we took our night watches the other was able to sleep in the steady conditions.  It was however quite foggy and so the watches themselves were heavily biased towards watching the radar.

Luckily, and unusually, the traffic was very light and we saw only a few fishing boats.  My biggest surprise was on the 12-3am watch when I suddenly saw something directly on the nose, thought that I couldn’t remember seeing anything on the radar, and then realised that it was the moon rising (we were travelling due east and so it was right in front of me).

This morning, as we approached Gozo and Malta, the wind picked up a bit from the NW and we were able to spend a couple of hours sailing on a very broad reach in a F3, but only making around 4 knots at best.  When the speed dropped to sub 3 knots we gave up and motored the rest of the short way to Gozo. 

As we approached the harbour, we spotted something in the water; a turtle meandering slowly on the surface.  We decided we needed a closer look and spun Pyxis around – we circled at a discreet distance and then left the turtle to continue leisurely on its way.

Arriving here, Richard had to call the Valetta Port Control as we entered Maltese waters to give them our details and then again at 2 miles from the marina to advise them of our arrival; we also had to fly our customs flag.  On the second call they advised us to proceed with caution into the harbour due to the ferry traffic – they were right!  Just as we arrived one ferry was leaving and two others were rapidly converging on the entrance.  We decided to wait just outside and let them through. Nevertheless, we were in and alongside around 2pm.

Once in the marina, Richard had to go with all our documents to the clear customs and immigration – fortunately it was quite straightforward as English is spoken here.  We are already finding it strange to be in a country where we hear a lot of English and don’t need to be fumbling with our French, Spanish or Italian all the time.

Just after we landed we spotted Star Dance, a boat we met in Hammamet, who also arrived today – they were off to bed after an overnight passage themselves from Pantelleria.  We had heard a British yacht calling Valetta Port Control before us but hadn’t realised who it was.

Late this afternoon, shattered, we went for showers in the marina facilities (though we’ve yet to meet the marina staff as no-one is around this afternoon) and a short walk around the attractive port to get off the boat for a while.

We did a double-take when we found that someone had berthed a horse on one of the pontoons further along – shallow enough so that it was only bathing its legs, but interesting nevertheless.

This evening we have had dinner aboard and an early night.

Gozo:  Mgarr Harbour

© Pyxis 2009