Valletta, Malta

The journey to Malta was our first overnight passage. With the wind only looking encouraging until about midday the following day, we decided to blow straight past our planned anchorage at Portopalo despite the late departure, and take on the 80 or so miles to Valletta in a straight chute.

With the moon at its fullest we had dinner in the brightly lit cockpit, only interrupted by the sudden sounds of dolphins cresting around the boat. Yet as we got further away from Italy we learned the importance of keeping constant watch. Crossing to Malta felt like the sea-going equivalent of ‘Frogger’ with huge tankers or cruise-ships crossing our path in both directions at least once every 30 minutes.

After a night of attentive driving and careful course changes the morning arrived sooner than we would have liked. We felt quite sleep deprived by the time Valletta appeared on the horizon. As we entered the two harbours, finding a place to stay proved enough of a challenge to keep us both awake.

The traffic of boats was unlike anything we’d seen, with hundreds of small craft scuttering around in the sloppy waves. Yet despite the boats, or perhaps because of them, the Malta authorities discourage or ban anchoring almost anywhere. We slowly pottered around every nook in the two harbours, being literally shooed away from spaces and mooring buoys or discouraged by the steep and rocky shores. In the end Michael, our local, came to our rescue, directing us to Rinelle Bay which seemed discouraging on the charts but proved to be very convenient.

In fact the whole of Malta was a welcome relief after the long month spent in Italy. The old city is beautiful. The soft limestone facades of the castles and churches crumble aesthetically in the baking Mediterranean sun and salty sea air set atop a series of epic, and (very) difficult to cycle hills and cliffs.

Yet for us the biggest relief was, sad to say, Britishness. Say what you will about the Empire, but it’s certainly made for amazing food culture. In Malta we easily found brilliant Thai food, good beer, cheap and deliciously fresh fish and chips and stocked up on a range of spices and dry food stuffs at the Asian market that were simply impossible to find anywhere in Italy or Greece. Oh the joy of holding a bottle of soy sauce larger than 200ml!

We knew nothing about Malta before arriving, and by the end of our 2nd day there we were already seriously considering moving to live there. We imagined a snotty, unaffordable tax haven, the kind of place where streets are boringly clean and the locals are out of sight. But instead, we found an interesting mix of cultures, classes and styles, with plenty of curious hidden corners, friendly people and the wild ocean present all around.

In honesty we felt like we could have stayed much longer. But when the sea calls... After a week the forecast picked up with just enough wind predicted that we figured we could make it across to Monastir almost on time for our booking. We packed up our huge quantities of boat shopping and much expanded to-do list and set out towards Linosa.