Gone to Gozo

 Yet another couple of weeks have passed since we arrived in Malta, how time flies.

We went into the Kalkara boat yard the Tuesday after we arrived in preparation for the fridge guy to come on Wednesday. The boatyard was fine but a bit out of the way of most things. Valletta harbour is huge with points of land like fingers extending into it. Valletta is on the biggest 'finger' and we were located on a smaller finger almost next to it, so while we were close as the crow flies, by the time you wander around the shoreline the distances increase significantly. Valletta itself is a World Heritage site, but without the charm of some of the others we have been to (like Cartagena, Colombia) It is full of history and like everything else in Malta built from the local sandstone, it is also very hilly,but there is very little atmosphere. The main activity is a few fingers along where all the main marinas are (which were all full) Still, there was a bus stop outside our boat yard which took you into Valletta (a half hour trip) and from there you can change buses to go anywhere on the island.

British heritage  (phone box)

Despite having visited Malta back in the 70's with my Mum, I would swear I had never been here before, nothing looks familiar. But I expect they can build a lot of roads and houses in 35 years!

Anyway the fridge guy, Sandro, arrived on time on Tuesday and spent most of the day installing a new fridge compressor. I had emptied all the lockers and we had taken the carpet up as it was messy job. The compressor uses carbon brushes which give off black carbon dust and as it hadn't been working properly there was surplus black stuff everywhere. We had a minor panic when we discovered Sandro would only accept cash, and as the job was going to be around 900 Euros we weren't sure how we were going to get the cash so quickly! But the boatyard kindly offered to lend it to us! and handed over an envelope with 1000 Euros in it. They also came to our rescue and put our food in their fridge and freezer, otherwise I would have had loads of melted cheese and butter, it was so hot in the yard! No breeze and 35 degrees!

Sandro working on the new compressor install

The boat was in upheaval all day and once the new compressor was installed Alan was concerned that it was using much more power than the old one. He wasn't just concerned about the energy consumption but the wear on the motor. Sandro said it would sort itself out when the compressor was 'run in', but that night Alan hit the internet and discovered that the compressor company makes 3 different models which all look the same but have slightly different power outputs. Instead of having the lowest one we had the middle one which wasn't right, so we emailed Sandro and asked him to fix the problem. He replied that he would replace the compressor with the right one (luckily there was one at the dealer in Malta) but if it didn't fix the motor problem we would have to pay again, another 900 Euros. Alan was a bit pissed off with this reply as it wasn't our fault the wrong thing had been fitted. Also it was unlikely that most other people would have even realised there was a problem. Because Alan had all the gizmos to measure current draw etc and his techie background he knew exactly what was happening. Anyway, long story short, Sandro came back, put the right compressor in and it all worked perfectly, we gave him 30 Euros for an hours work, plus we had to spend and extra night at the yard. Alan slept so well that night, he has been worrying about the fridge since Morocco and nursing it along, so now he can relax. The extra day spent on the fridge meant we couldn't hire a car and explore the island, so once again I have just seen boatyards, chandleries and supermarkets!

It was such a relief to get back on anchor and at least be able to jump in for a dip if it got too hot.

We have been moving from anchorage to anchorage seeing new bits of Malta and Gozo. We prefer Gozo, it's a more manageable size, has more nooks and crannies to anchor in than Malta which has a few but which are all huge and crowded. We found one particularly pleasant bay,it was lovely, sandstone cliffs with a bit of greenery on the hillside (that's a rarity, it's so dry here) we had one of our better snorkels with some rocks and a few fishies. Everything here is so monochromatic, there's no coral, everything including the fish are shades of brown and beige. After the Caribbean it's like watching a black and white movie after being used to seeing everything in glorious technicolour. Anyway, we had just got back from our swim at about 5'ish when this party boat pulled along side us and dropped anchor while blasting out techno music at an outrageous sound level. There must have been a hundred or so youngsters all bikini clad, dancing and drinking. As soon as the anchor was down they jumped in and splashed around while the music boomed on. Oh well we thought, they won't stay long. Wrong! 3 hours later at 8 pm they finally headed off and left us with our bleeding ear drums! So much for our 'peaceful' anchorage!

We have also taken the bus to Victoria, the capitol of Gozo and in the centre of the island. The drive was through very dry and arid looking countryside. Not much growing except for lots of prickly pear cacti. There were 3 small shopping malls all very close together with some very familiar English shops! All the supermarkets stock English products like Marmite, HP sauce and custard powder, however most of the food is imported and quite pricey, especially the fresh produce. A shame after the lovely fruit and veg we had got used to in Sardinia.

The Maltese certainly like their fireworks! Wherever we have been, every night there are fireworks, even during the day when you can only hear them and see the smoke afterwards. We have since discovered that Malta has a long tradition of fireworks dating back to the 16th^h century when the island was occupied by the Knights Templar and they used to celebrate by letting off cannon and musket fire. There are 5 firework factories in Malta and Gozo and they actually have a firework competition every year in April. Definitely a time to have your ear plugs in!

It looks like we may have to wait a week for some wind to get us to Greece. We are going to try and get straight through to Turkey if we can, otherwise we may pull into a Greek island without checking in and wait for weather.