Time to Leave Malta (Gone from Gozo)

Today we checked out of Malta and are in a small anchorage doing all those jobs that have to be done before going to sea for  4 to 8 days. We plan to go staight through from Malta to Turkey about 650nm.  Give the fluky winds here this will take us at least 6 days. We could stop in the Greek Islands before this if we need to.

We have spent the last week or two around the smaller island of Gonzo. Very nice but rugged.

The Blue Lagoon, a very popular "beach" on Comino, next to Gozo

They pack the party boats....wonder how many they lose?

The bay next to the boat yard in Valletta.

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.

Mistrals are fun.......not...

Well the plan was that we leave Calasetta, Sardinia and use the Mistral (a strong NW wind that originates in the Alps near the Spanish/French boarder)to blow us all the way south east to Malta, 350 nm, about 500 kms. I checked the GRIB weather information every day before hand and the prediction firmed up and looked like 15-25 knots for most of the required 3 days, fading at the end so that we would have to motor for a few hours. Close to perfect.

So what could go wrong with such a planed and well thought out voyage?

A continuous 25-30 kts gusting almost 40 kts makes for a bloody uncomfortable sail, that's what.

One feature of the Med is that there is a very small tide (around half a metre), smaller currents and no big ocean swell. When the wind comes up the wind waves come up and when the wind stops the sea state calms quickly. So 15-20 knots behind us should not really be a problem....right? Well when the wind gods get a little carried away and keep puffin up to 40 knots the waves in the Med do get large. When we had a constant 30kts for a day, it was NOT a good idea to look behind the boat to see what was coming!

The wind was blowing directly in the direction we wanted to go, this might sound great but there is a problem. We can put out 2 sails at the front of the boat (goose winged jibs) and this can work well when the seas are slight, not so well with big seas. We were rolling from side to side furiously....not a happy crew! We eventually found a combination that worked, a very small main sail, a very small jib and sailing at an angle of about 30 degrees off our course. So we zig zagged down wind for two and a half days before the wind finally calmed down and here we are now no wind and motoring for the last 20 nm.

That was what really happened....here is the Admirals side of the story....

Quite scary, huge seas with the wind whipping the tops of them into frothy whitecaps. Most of them Sunflower surfed down (best not to look down from the the top of a multi storey wave at the rest of the ocean below!)Occasionally a rogue wave would hit the side of the boat with a huge thud knocking us all sideways and even dumping a large quantity of sea water over the deck and cockpit. We were both tired and battered from being knocked around the cabin, unable to sleep and trying to keep the boat on course. At times I asked myself what on earth I was doing, and why couldn't I live in a nice dry house that didn't keep lurching all over the place. Then as soon as things calmed down, the seas returned to a nice gentle undulating motion and Sunflower was purring along, I forgot all the bad stuff and was enjoying the joy of being underway again,..... until the next time anyway!

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Tales of Woe....

Hmmmm.....we do seem to have a couple little problems at the moment......

My media computer developed a networking driver problem so that I could
not connect to the internet. I tried all the usual stuff and finally an
XP repair. This all went well until I tried to log back on and it
required an activation before it would log me on but of course I can't
activate it until I can log on........Microsoft wins again!!!! Still
trying things...may require a rebuild. I still have 2 computers working
so it could be worse.

That means that I have been unable to update the web site until I move
it all to a spare computer.

So I thought I would update the Chronicles on line......so I log on to
the blog website and find that it will only allow me to edit titles but
not the body text!!! This on 2 different computers and 3 different
browsers.

That means the only way to update the Chronicles is via email, as I am
doing here,

I checked the Frig compressor a few days ago and find that it is leaking
more oil than it was so the seal is getting worse. It is 20 years old so
time for a replacement. It is a Frigomar manufactured in Italy. Hey we
are in Italy, should be no problem......I contact the factory and they
will send me one for 1500 euros yep one thousand and five hundred
euros...that must be close to $2000!!! The factory has now closed for
the August holidays. The short story is that I have found one in stock
in Malta (about 350 nm away). They even speak English there and the
price is .......... 650 euros.

Guess what.....we are sailing for Malta in the next few days. The winds
will blow in the right direction and it will be 3 nights at sea, heading
in the correct direction for our winter marina in Turkey. What could
go wrong........?

Spain to Italy - Calasetta Sardinia

We have now been in Sardinia for just over a week after a lovely 49 hour sail from Mallorca under a glorious full moon. Alan had judged the weather perfectly and we were able to sail most of the way, much better than burning diesel.

We headed for the south western tip of the island to a place called Calasetta. Our main reason for coming here was to meet up with our old mate Peter on Golden Eagle. Although we had spent Christmas with him in his bosses house in the south of France, the last time our boats had been together was 2 years ago in Panama. Peter crossed the Atlantic from Panama a few weeks ahead of us but went directly from there to Bermuda and then Gibraltar, as we crossed from the US and then dallied in the Azores for a couple of months he had arrived in Europe well before us, while we wintered in Morocco. We were beginning to despair of ever catching him up, but he arrived in Calasetta last October and decided to stay put! He is in the little marina here but we are anchored around the corner. We have had our mail sent here and are waiting for it to arrive.

The local mayor has his boat in the same marina as Peter and they have become good mates and Peter has the use of the mayors old banger (one of several vehicles he owns) It 's a very old Fiat Panda with room for one person in the back, mainly because the front seats are rusted into fixed positions and can't be moved forward, so Alan has to sprawl across the back seat as there is no room for his knees otherwise. Luckily Sant Antioco where Calasetta is located is a very small island, so a tour only took about half an hour and the main town of Sant Antioco is about a 10 minute drive away. It's main claim to fame is a Lidl supermarket!

We have been surprised at how much windier and cooler it is here than in Mallorca. There is a wind called a Mistral which funnels down from the French Alps and keeps Sardinia quite breezy, we have had 20-25 knots most of the time we have been here, other friends who are on the north coast have been having 35 knots! On the plus side it is pleasant for sleeping and there are no mossies, but getting ashore in the dinghy can be a soggy experience.

Calasetta is a small village with an old look out tower on the cliff and mainly modern buildings. It has a commercial harbour where the Ro-Ro's (roll on roll off) car ferries ply a constant trade day and night from both the other island and the mainland and the local fishing fleet hang out. Ashore there are a couple of small supermarkets, several excellent gelaterias and several overpriced restaurants (where for some reason pizza is only cooked in the evenings) some excellent fruit stalls and a small but interesting market on a Wednesday morning. Siesta time is taken more seriously here than in Spain and everything shuts from 1pm until 5.30! This makes finding a shop open a bit tricky for us, as by the time we get ourselves together and ashore everything is ready to close and by 5.30 we are thinking of a G&T and relaxing for the day:)

Once our mail arrives we will look at moving on but are not sure where to. We would like to get to the north of the island as we have a friend of a friend who lives here we would like to meet and also another Aussie boat we know from Panama is also up north but we need to see if the winds will co-operate. Otherwise we may just head for Sicily and then on to Malta and Greece. We are now in August which is the silly season in the Med as most European countries have the whole month off and anything that floats in on the water. We would like to avoid the most popular places during August if possible. So the plan is that we are heading for Malta in the next few days.

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Mayhem in Mallorca

We arrived in Palma last Sunday, around 7 pm after a 13 hour sail and motor from Ibiza. We knew anchoring wasn't allowed within the harbour so we dropped the hook outside the breakwater. We were just finishing supper when a port authority boat arrived to tell us we couldn't  anchor there! We explained we had just  arrived and were very tired, so they agreed we could stay the night (it was already 8.30 pm!) but would need to move a mile further down in the morning! Next day we moved and tried to launch the dinghy in a huge swell with Sunflower doing the rock and roll she does so well:)

We had a very wet dinghy ride (with me hidden under a tarp, trying to keep dry) as waves slurped over the bow and side, for the several mile trip into the harbour. We really had to be here for 2 reasons; we had ordered some spare parts for our fridge and we needed immigration to enter the EU. (more of both of those sagas later) The harbour was massive, several miles across and a solid forest of masts and lumps of expensive white plastic, there must have been more than 5000 yachts in there amongst the 9 marinas! We puttered around looking for somewhere to land the dinghy and finally found a ladder on the wall at one of the smaller marinas. Alan went ashore to make enquirires.

We had previously made email requests to a couple of the marinas about a berth for a night or two, but quotes of 200 Euros a night (!!) had rather put us off! This marina offered a berth for 49! Even though it was more than double  the rate we have ever paid before we decided it was probably worth it for a few nights. They let us leave the dinghy there while we stretched our legs ashore and found some lunch, then it was back ot Sunflower to restow the dinghy on deck and prepare to come into the marina, always a nerve racking experience and this time was no different! Again, more of that later... but for now we are snug in a marina and no rolling out of bed with the swell.

Let's Party.......

We had a 2hr motor sail over to the party island, Ibiza.

We spent a week in a beautiful anchorage on the south coast, called Cala d'Hort. There were stunning views of Isla Vedra a massive rocky outcrop, which doubled for a south pacific atoll in the film South pacific! We went ashore for the first time since we had left Gib about 2 weeks previously. The beach wasn't as nice close up as it looked from afar, more rocks, less sand. But that didn't seem to deter the hundreds of white,pink and red people lying in the hot sun! Mental! We heard lots of English and German as well as Spanish being spoken all around us. There were 3 restaurants, 2 on the beach and one on a rocky promontory which looked too hard to get to. So we picked one which was very full even at 2.45 pm. Paella featured strongly on the menu, with about 6 different types on offer. We had the 'Spanish' one which was chicken and shell fish and the type I like to make.

Topless sunbathing seems to be the norm here and in some cases bottomless as well, nobody seems very bothered. However we did get a bit of a surprise one day when we were busy reading in the cockpit and I heard lots of yelling nearby. I peeked out from under the sunshade and there was a young couple waving at us from the water, asking if they could rest on the back of our boat, having swum out from the beach. I said sure, expecting them to hang off the swim platform for a breather. Alan went back to chat to them and when I joined them a few minutes later was most surprised to see a gorgeous young couple standing on the swim platform as naked as the day they were born wearing only their jewellery and tattoos! They seemed completely at ease, and chatted on about coming over from Uruguay for a week of meditation and communing with nature. After about 10 minutes they were rested enough to dive back into the sea and head back to the beach leaving Alan with a big smile on his face:)

We are really enjoying being back on anchor, although during the day from about 1 pm onwards we have to share with many expensive power boats and charter yachts, who make poor Sunflower look a bit shabby to say the least as they are usually bright and shiny but probably haven't crossed many oceans! But then by about 7-8 pm they all head back to their marinas and we are left in peace until next day. It doesn't get dark here until after 10 pm so we are eating, going to bed and getting up much later than usual.

After a couple of weeks, fresh supplies were running low so we came around to the west side of the island to San Antonio, 1 of the 3 main towns on the island. It used to be a small fishing harbour but in the 60's underwent massive development to cater to the tourist boom. It is a big bay surrounded by hundreds of high rise and sprawling ugly square box  hotels as well as some of the huge clubs Ibiza is famous for. Little is left of the original village except for a church and a few narrow streets. We found several supermarkets and managed to resupply very well. We had dinner out at one of the many waterfront restaurants and bars. The people watching was amazing. Hordes of guys and girls wandering around in various states of undress sporting tattoos all over the place and with an average age of about 12! Well that was how it felt to us seeing as we were about 100 years older than anyone else there! The beaches there are pretty crappy, so there are loads of tour boats taking people to all the lovely bays like the one we had just left. In the evenings there are sunset cruises often with themes. So it wasn't unusual to see big rugby player types wandering around in tutus or sporting gold body paint and feathers, the girls were also into dressing up big time. The music kept us company on the anchor until the wee small hours. 2 days were enough so we are now at a lovely secluded bay on the north coast waiting for  a weather window to travel the 60 miles across to Mallorca the largest of the 4 islands in the group. We hope to leave on Sunday.