Happy Birthday

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 31 Jul 2010 20:36
Thursday 29th, Friday 30th and Saturday 31st July

OK so I like Malta. Actually I like Malta a lot and the longer we stay the
more we are getting to enjoy the place, the people (well mostly) and the
whole experience.

We are off now on Sunday, our delay being because of some adverse weather
coming in across the Med from France, but we are hoping now for a window
in the weather that will allow us to head for Sardinia and if the next
wave of dodgy stuff comes though early we have the option of heading north
in the seas between Sardinia and Italy which looks to be a bit calmer.

Thursday became a bit of a non day for us as our original plan had been to
spend some time in Valletta but for various reasons this was put off until
Friday, so the day seemed to just slide by with little of note happening
until the evening when we were invited for dinner on good old Scott Free.
They had invited Rico and Jackson as well, but somehow their invitation
never got read in time. We had a great evening although it all had to come
to an end as I was finally unable to stay awake any longer! However during
the day, Sarah did manage to solve the mystery of the lone elderly gent
who every evening could be seen wading in the shallows close to the marina
wearing a snorkel mask. He spends hours bent double obviously rooting on
the sea bed for something, which now turns out to be sea snails which are
surprisingly large and for which he gets 30 euros each, presumably from a
restaurant. The downside of his business is that he has got the most
obviously extreme skin cancer all over his back as he wears no protection
at all.

Friday was my birthday (58 would you believe) and the day started promptly
with the arrival of Kurt who was installing the AIS. Sarah had also
managed some real presents and so it was a very cheerful morning for us.
Scott Free had a less successful morning as Kurt went to deal with their
autohelm problems once he had finished on Serafina and although he solved
the problem with one of their three (yes three!) autopilots, he determined
that the main unit had a fault that was a little harder to fix and needed
him to call Raymarine in the UK or else they were looking at some €1100
for a new circuit board. This of course was all information they would
rather have had a few days ago rather than now with another weekend when
no work gets done looming.

In the late afternoon we went for a trip into Valletta to explore the city
and to enjoy along the way a ride on one of the island wonderful buses.
The national bus company here runs buses which are exclusively dated from
1950 to 1980 and it is nothing short of a living museum. All painted a
garish yellow and orange with fantastic sign-writing (with weird and
wonderful tag lines), they rip around the town, packed with passengers who
seem to almost relish the lack of air conditioning, suspension or doors.
How on earth they keep all these vehicles roadworthy, God only knows but
they are such fun and I know that when we have finished all our travels I
would gladly return here to live out my time as one of their drivers (and
yes they are all of Rob’s era as a coach driver!!) The fares are
presumably subsidised and for our trip we paid less than 49 cents (50p)
each. Photos at www.rhbell.com

We wandered around Valletta which is a remarkable place and very
attractive although not in a way that is easy to capture on film. Sarah
and Chris both found plenty of interesting shops along the way and after
an early evening drink we headed back towards the marina, but aimed to
call in at the Royal Malta Yacht Club for my birthday dinner. The bus
driver seemed to understand our request and promised to let us know when
to get off, but in the event took no notice of us and it was not until we
were most of the way back to the marina did it become obvious that he had
either forgotten or misunderstood. Given that everyone here speaks good
English we can assume charitably that he just forgot..... Anyway we walked
back to the Yacht Club and discovered that its dining room also doubles up
with the restaurant next door, which was fine and we enjoyed a hearty
meal. I say hearty because we were all very full at the end, but
especially Steve and me as we had to cope manfully with the most enormous
full racks of ribs each!

I mentioned in an earlier posting from Malta that the national pastime at
this time of the year is letting off fireworks, but we have also
discovered more about this as well. Certainly every town or district has a
feast or festival to celebrate at some stage and by all accounts each
place also has its own resident pyromaniac who will make all the fireworks
himself and there is stiff competition between the villages. This then
involves plenty of testing and practice which sort of explains that almost
constant crump of explosives throughout every day. As we approach the
weekend, this intensifies and it becomes quite natural to hear these
things booming out all day, but of course to very little effect in broad
daylight, just endless balls of white smoke in the sky rather like anti
aircraft fire.

Saturday was our last day here and so we spent the time preparing for the
next leg of the trip. As I mentioned earlier the weather is not being too
helpful and so we have had to make a few late alterations and plan for
contingencies. Scott Free had another visit from Kurt who this time
removed the electronics for the main autopilot to work on over the
weekend. It is nice to know something is happening, however, like us they
had rather planned to leave on Sunday morning, but in their case heading
for Tunisia, so they may be here for a few more days yet. We invited them
round for a farewell drink in the evening and said our temporary goodbyes,
but we sort of expect to meet them again before too long, probably in
Spain or Gibraltar as we are both headed for the Canaries in a similar
time frame. We will however be trying to stay in touch using the SSB radio
and there are two other sets of friends who have asked to join this
informal net. They are Andy and Sara on Limbara (ex-Rally) who are
currently heading up the Portuguese coast and Rico and Jackson on
Apparition who are heading to the Caribbean at the same time as us.

Big fireworks night tonight as they seem to have been practising hard all
day – but you will have to wait until we make Sardinia for a full report
as we are signing off now just as they are getting going (It is now 10.30
pm), until next Wednesday, all being well. Should be a busy morning around
6.00 am as we are only one of a number of local boats all setting out at
first light. They are all heading for Sicily, which is not far off our
track too although we have some serious reefs to avoid in the channel
between Sicily and Africa.