The day we planned to depart Sicily, a massive SSW wind blew up in what was for us, the wrong direction! We waited it out most of the day, as locals said it was to die down later in the day. Which happened! When in doubt always ask a local.
We departed San Leon on 11 July for an 80 nautical mile voyage to Malta. We had to deal with three meter swells left over from the heavy winds. As we left the weather influence of Sicily and hit open seas, the wind came into our favour and we were able to turn off the engine and sail with 100% Genoa.
The night was fairly uneventful and on my morning watch, I sighted land at 0700. I put up our Malta courtesy flag and called the authorities on the VHF to notify them that we are now in Maltese waters. They asked us to just stand by on the radio and continue on our course.
When Rob got up from his snooze around 1030,we were right off the coast of Gozo, one of the three islands of Malta. Our first impression was a very dry, barren island with stark cliffs. The layers of the sediment rock (limestone) evident in the sheer cliffs. No mountains, no trees...villages scattered about dominated by huge cathedrals with domes and spires. In the morning light, it was difficult to see details.
We arrived at the Port of Mgarra, finding a berth without a problem. It is a pretty port, with Arabic architecture, mixed in with a little Italian and British. The main building material still being the tufa, or limestone, that we saw in Sicily. However, here, the stone has a golden color, especially in low light. The stone seems to change color throughout the day. The port is also greener than I expected...lots of trees, cactus and flowering plants. Rob went to check in with the authorities and also to have a look around. He came back with all the tourist info we wanted and a reservation for a car rental the next day.
So...on Friday the 13th, off we went to explore the Island of Gozo (hoping no black cats would cross our way). We headed to the main city of the island, Victoria, to see the citadel, a huge fortress at the highest point of the island.
Victoria
was in full festival in celebration of St. George, the town's patron saint.
Beautifully painted wooden (looking like marble) statues of all the
saints lined the streets, everything decorated, people buzzing around.
Food and beer stalls were being put up for the evening crowds who will come for
the mass, procession and fireworks. We went into the Basilica which was
filled with phenomenal paintings and golden gilding work and highly decorated
for the celebrations. The quality of the church was astounding.
In the Citadel, we took the self guided walking tour which brought us first to the folk museum. Here we found all the traditional tools of living and working in a setting which took us back in time to the 15th century. The archeological museum housed remnants and pot chards from the earliest know inhabitants of these islands.
Rob and I went to the site of the Ggantija Temples at Xaghra. This glorious site is the location of the oldest freestanding stone structures known to date. They pre date Stonehenge in England and the pyramids of Egypt by 1000 years! As we walked around the circular site we were amazed at the size of the stones, the largest weighing 57 tons. The walls stand over 6 meters high and the two temples cover an area of 40 meters. We were in awe that this structure has survived for so many thousands of years. This temple is located at the top of a hill providing an excellent view of southern Gozo and Malta in the distance.
Malta is made up of three islands, Gozo, Comino and Malta. We departed our berth at Mgarra and went a short distance to Comino. It was a Sunday, and I think everyone who has a boat in this country was here, tremendously crowded! However, by evening, everyone has gone home and we had a lovely anchorage to ourselves. We swam in the beautiful clear water and explored some caves in the dingy.
It is now time to head for Malta, the big smoke! It will be a culture shock to arrive there as it is a very built up area and we know we will have to go to work doing the annual maintenance on Sea Fever. So we bravely head on.
The main city of Malta is Valetta. As we enter the port we see the massive fortresses that have been built here over the centuries by the various conquerors of this small but strategically placed country. The Maltese worked very hard to gain their independence and to become their own people that they are today. The people here speak Maltese which is a combination of many languages, but has an Arabic sound to it. Everyone also speaks absolutely fluent English which for us is very refreshing. It took us few days to realize that we can communicate easily here! The Maltese LOVE fireworks! Everyday huge explosive sounds going off from 8 in morning to 10 -11 at night. All the churches are lit up and decorated to celebrate their Saint's Day. Lots going on at this time of year!
We found a berth for the two nights while we researched the best place to take Sea Fever out of the water. We finally decided on Malta Yacht Yard which in retrospect was a very good decision. So for ten days, we lived on the hard while Rob scraped and anti-fouled the hull and I spit and polished the top sides (and other jobs too). We were happy to get back in the water!
In the yard and on the slip was a replica of the great schooner AMERICA. This beautiful sailing ship won a race held one hundred and fifty years ago. Since that time the race we know of today as the America's Cup was named after this schooner, not the country. The replica we saw was built in the sixties and looks brand new. She was off to England for the 150th Anniversary of the original race that initiated the America's Cup Series. She was the flag ship for this spectacular event. We felt it very special to see her here.
We rented a car to explore Malta for a day. It is so built up that there is not really much to see, even in the countryside. The small narrow roads are lined with high walls which make it difficult to see the landscape. It was a dry time of year, so not many crops were growing. All water on Malta comes from desalinization plants. The natural water table of the island was used up a long time ago.
We did go and visit some interesting sites and have some interesting experiences:
Calypso's where the nymph
Calypso kept Odysseus (Ulysses) captive for seven years before allowing him to
begin his long voyage home to Ithaca. The cave overlooks Ir-Ramla beach,
one of the most beautiful of the island. This beach is protected from
attack by an underwater wall so ships cannot get to the beach.
Ghar Dalam a
subterranean cave where they have discovered alluvial deposits containing
thousands of fossilized bones and teeth of dwarf animals such as foxes, deer,
bear, elephants and hippopotami's. The fossils date back 180,000 to 18,000
years. Horse
in the house: Horse trotting is very big in Malta, so
as we drive around you see some fine horses about. We had stopped on one
street in a town and an owner was bringing his horse out of his house. Rob
asked him if the horse lived in the house? The man said he had a
yard for the horse in the back of the house but the only way to get it out was
through the house! Also in the evenings (as the days are very warm)
many owners bring their horses to the sea and let them stand or swim in the
water for a cool off.
Megalithic temples of Hagar Qim:
similar to the temples we visited in Gozo, but not as old.
Tarxien Temples:
megalithic temples dating back 3600 and 2500BC. These temples were
discovered in 1914.
We were unable to visit the Hypogeum as you need to purchase tickets in advance. The hypogeum is an underground necropolis thought to date from 3600 to 3000 BC.
On 11 August, we depart Malta with our friends Annie and Rowan on board with us. There is a heavy force 6 NW wind blowing outside the harbour. Before heading to our anchorage for the night, we get permission to enter the Grand Harbour of Malta. This proved to be a very interesting detour for us as we were able to see the massive and numerous fortress walls of the Three Cities and Valetta. Here the huge freighters from the world deliver goods and fishing fleets deliver their fish to the markets. We had a delicious lunch on board while seeing all these wonderful sights.
Rowan Annie
We left the harbour once again to the force 6 winds. We just had the jib up and easily doing 7 knots. We overnight at Marsaloxx Bay on the south east of Malta.
12 August we depart Marsaloxx heading north to Comino Island. We are expecting heavy winds and we are reefed down. We end up spending the night at Mgarr Harbour on Gozo as the weather was too heavy to anchor out. Annie and Rowan take a trip exploring the island while Rob checked us out of the country and we made final preparations and purchases for a thirty hour voyage to the Egadi Islands, just off Sicily.
Before
we departed Malta, we had a final stop at anchor in the lovely and dramatic
Dwejra Bay. This bay is a collapsed cave which has been filled by the sea.
It has two narrow entrances around a large rock known as fungus rock. This
rock gets its name from a special plant that grew here and was protected by the
Knights of St. John for its medicinal properties. After a walk and a swim
we departed Dwejra Bay at 1030 undersail with a good NWN wind.
We had a good sail and motor sail up to the Egadi Islands. We met many ships along the Sicily coast but all went well. Because I wrote about the Egadi Islands in my last journal entry, I will not go into details of our visit here. Rob and I both enjoyed showing the islands to Rowan and Annie and they enjoyed them very much. We all agreed that the island of Maritimo is our favorite of this group. It is mountainous, has interesting walks, a spectacular coastline, clean water, no cars, no hotels and a very comfy fishing village. The ferry comes everyday, so supplies are easy to get (but expensive).
On 19 August we head south west to the Island of Pantelleria. This island belongs to Italy but is only 40 miles off the coast of Tunisia. Pantellleria is of volcanic origin, is quite rocky and windblown. The olive trees grow along the ground like a ground cover! Where there is soil, it is very fertile and is under cultivation.
Annie and Rowan rented a car for the day to explore the island. They return somewhat disappointed as the island did not seem to match the descriptions of the guidebooks. However, the next morning, they took us to the site of bronze age (1800 BC) stone funerary mounds. These are tombs with circular truncated cone structures built with tunnels going into the center. Apparently there are 70 smaller ones surrounding the largest one which we visited.
We got some very fresh swordfish in town. Annie cooked it to the finest it could be. Yum! Thank you Annie!!
As we left Pantelleria, we cruised the coastline of the island. Here we found absolutely spectacular rock formations over 500 feet high. Pillars of rock holding up the island lined the shore. There are no beaches, so where the few roads that do come to the coast are people sunbathing on the sharp volcanic rocks or cement "beaches" that have been put there just for the purpose of sunbathing and swimming. We saw lots of terracing for crops, particularly vines.
Next stop, Tunisia, North Africa! A new continent, a new land. From Pantelleria, we have a heading of 225 degrees. Our destination is Monastir. We have a good SE wind pushing us along at 5 and 6 knots. Annie is at the helm and loving every minute of it!
We made good progress and had good sailing on this passage.
Rob and I thank Annie and Rowan for joining us on our sailing adventure. It was a pleasure and lots of fun to have them on board. We hope to see them with us again!
All for now!