Bringing Back the Fanny Pack

May 5

The much awaited weather window finally arrived this morning allowing us to join the congo line of sailboats departing Marina Di Ragusa.  Ostinato's destination, south, to Malta. While the winds had

stopped howling, the seas had yet to catch up with the idea resulting in a sloshy roll that lasted the entire 8 hour trip and laid me horizontal for much of that time. Neighbor and friend Bill had arrived the day before so King had plenty of willing hands should they be needed. It would be a stretch to call this a shake down cruise since what wind there was was on the nose and the sails never saw the light of day.  At 1700 sharp we were anchored in the Blue Lagoon at the western end of Malta enjoying an adult beverage while we soaked up the golden hued landscape and crystal blue waters surrounding us. We were finally off the docks!

Our first anchorage of the 2016 season....The Blue Lagoon

May 6

While Malta is part of the EU it still requires vessels entering its waters to check in so King had us hauling the anchor up bright and early and heading toward the island of Gozo. Apparently it was too early for some members of the crew because the little grey cells had not fully ignighted.  Things like how to tie a proper knot was just not ready to surface.  As we headed toward the dock the first fender fell off and began swimming toward freedom.   Not to worry, King circled around and said crew plucked it out of the water with perfection. Fenders were quickly moved to the opposite side, per the Big Guy's request and with loud grumbling from the crew due to the little notice and being cut no slack as he zeroed in on the dock from the other direction...just as we touched, another fender jumped off the boat.....and its lines quickly wrapped the prop.  The Big Guy was not amused. Off he stomped toward Check-in, grumbling something about digging out his diving gear. Now we were all in snarky moods.  

Unidentified crew
practicing his knots

The little grey cells must of been dormant on other yachts this morning as well as divers arrived on the dock behind us within minutes of King's grumbling request to get the diving gear.  Mask, snorkel, fins ....the diver was in and out in less than a minute. My eyes never left the little operation and as soon as he was out of the water I began my pleaB for help.  After a quick conference with a buddy we got the verdict....."YES!" He would dive for us...€40. Ouch....unnamed crew quickly decided it was well worth it to keep King out of the cold water. ....and not have to listen to him moan all morning. A thumbs up put the diver in the water and under the boat in a flash. 15 sec later he surfaced with the prized fender....a little worse for wear but aren't we all....as quickly as the diver had arrived, he was gone, pulling himself back out of the water on the opposite dock to wrap himself in warm towels. When asked how to get them the money we were told "it is nothing, no charge".  Welcome to Malta!   Off to Valletta we sailed.  While some got reacquainted with their knots. 

The weather still hadn't settled so we decided to look for a tie up that would allow us to explore Malta without worrying about dragging from hither to yon. There was, however, no room for the wide girl on our arrival. With King's typical "ostinato" he finally found a spot on a dock that was still in the process of being built. While it didn't provide a lot of protection from the NW, it kept us in one place. Here we bobbed, jerked and swayed for a week while we explored every major tourist attraction on Malta. When not being entertained, we explored the supermarkets and multiple marine stores.  I spent an entire afternoon in the Gala Supermarket. They had Pam spray!  If you had told me 10 years ago I could get giddy about Pam .....It's so often the little things.  I was so excited, I text messaged King!

The dock Ostinato was tied to was marginal but the view of Valletta was first rate!

Inside the gates of Valletta

May 13
The winds have turned full circle back to the NE so it was time to move to the southern coast. We enjoyed a sweet sleigh ride to Marsaxlokk where we creeped in as far as we dared and anchored in 10 feet of swimming pool clear water.  Minutes after we got the anchor down, SY Maltese Falcon sailed into the anchorage.  Mario and Lillian are Canadian but are from Malta originally and a wealth of information on what to do in Malta.  We later found several other MdR alumni in the market. Apparently the place to be.

Marsaxlokk town quay and Saturday market

The trading of burgees at the Royal Malta YC
(King modeling his fanny pack)

From Marsaxlokk we continued our bus riding exploration....sightseeing, shopping and sampling the local dishes. On Sunday, Marsaxlokk has a huge market which we fully explored from one end to another.  As usual, we bought way too much fruit, strawberries, peaches, white grapes (seedless yeepee).  Fortunately, something we never tire of.  And did I mention the tomatoes and beautiful asparagus?  MMmmmm.  Besides fruits and veggies, King also purchased a fanny pack.  It matches Bills.  I explained to them both that fanny packs had gone out of fashion in the 90s.  When that didn't work, I reminded King of his "man bag" that he had purchased on the Rhine (never to see the light of day) but there was simply no changing his mind.

Our last day was spent roaming around Valletta.  Besides last minute shopping, we had a destination, the Royal Malta Yacht Club, where we hoped to exchange our ABYC burgee for one of theirs.  It was a successful trip!


The bus trip to and from Marsaxlokk takes close to 45 minutes and today the return bus was late....Not just late but VERY late.  The crowd was not a happy bunch.  The time came and went that would allow us to use our 2 hour ticket.  Along with others, I complained to the "guy in the green vest" and was assured he would tell the driver so there would be no additional charge.  1 1/2 hours later the bus arrived and was stormed by a mob daring the driver to leave the bus.  The "man in the green vest" was of course nowhere to be seen.  The driver did not take issue with my claim for a free a free ride....nor anyone else's for that matter.  Off we rumbled, swaying and bouncing along.  About 20 minutes into the trip the stop buzzer started going off.  The driver would pull over but no one would get off.  This went on for another 10 minutes getting more insistent as time passed.  Finally, the driver stopped the bus in the middle of the road and exploded out of his tiny cabin in the front, screaming "who's pressing the button?!"  The passengers, ranging in age from 15 to 80, all sat in shocked silence.  After searching each passenger's face in hopes of uncovering the guilty party, he turned to go back to his seat.  Halfway there .....buzzzzzzz.  He swung around in rage, hair standing on end, spittal flying from his mouth.  He stomped down the aisle eyeing each passenger and pushing the buttons on one side, then the other as he moved to the back of the bus.  Each one providing the expected snappy buzz.  No one breathed.  At the last row of seats, he turned, defeated, head bowed, shoulders slumped, as he quietly made his was back to the drivers seat.  The next stop was ours.....I'll be damn if I was gonna push that button.  Thankfully, there was a large crowd waiting at our Marsaxlokk stop.......probably really angry because they had been waiting for over 2 hours for the bus......poor driver.  There were plenty of seats for them because the rest of bus load decided they had enough and all piled out.

It was such an ordeal we decided to eat on shore tonight.  "Yea" cooks night off!  I ordered the special

at the local waterfront restaurant. It started with fish soup which smelled lovely but upon close inspection, I'll be darned if I could find any fish in it. The meal was a steal for €12 so I felt a bit silly complaining....especially after the "free" bus ride but it was quickly remedied with a new bowl and 2 healthy pieces of fish....along with a main course of calamari, grouper, octopus, fries and salad.  yumm.   

May 18

The Blue Grotto has the bluest waters we have ever seen

The weather forecasts have been entertaining but lack any consistent information that you might use for planning. Our planned Friday crossing has been moved  to tomorrow.....and the winds are shifting to the south. Back around the island we go. We are all excited as Bill gets to practice his fender tying.  He go a C.  Nothing fell overboard....but me fears he is not practicing as much as he claims.  We traveled along the south coast heading west with the wind on our nose....checked out at Gozo and then moved to the north coast traveling east....and the wind was on our nose!  That's just mean.  

We finally put the anchor down in St. Peter's Bay. The bay is full of hundreds of empty buoys.  The problem is you have no idea what size boat they will hold so we carefully anchored in between them.  It ended up being a rolly, uncomfortable night.

May 19
Up at 7 with plans to move back around to Marsaxlokk.  The weather continues to be weird with the forecast being more wishful thinking than anything near reality.  The good news was we did not have any mooring balls underneath us so once the anchor was up, King, with Bill and me on the bow pointing out floating mooring lines, weaved his way back out of the harbour.  We headed east but after one last look at the weather forecast, it was decided that maybe it was time to jump back to Siracusa, Sicily.  The winds should be light and by afternoon "forecasted" to back around to the south.  Sounded good.  As if we needed any encouragement, a text message arrived from Namir one of the yachts we sailed with across the Atlantic.  "Where are you?"  They were sitting in Portopalo.....A quick course adjustment and Portopalo here we come!

Its always special to see Joanie and Bob.  We came across the Atlantic together and met in the Azores,  again in Turkey and now Sicily. Like us, they are headed west again.

The market was full of fish.....

.....and fruit!

The boys

The boats of  Marsaxlokk