Crossing

From Grand Harbour in Valetta, we sneaked south down to a tiny fishing harbour called Marsaskala to avoid a forecasted blow. It was such a secure and convenient anchorage, we ended up staying 3 days here. Here's a few photos from our sight seeing jaunt around the Grand Harbour.

Impressive buildings on the shores of the Grand Harbour

Pavlov enroute to Marsaskala

Superyacht moorings at Camper and Nicholsons.

An oil rig in for maintenance

A visiting German destroyer

Old forts on the southern shore of the Valleta peninsula

Watchtowers guarding the entrance

Pavlov anchored in Marsaskala

Marsaskala town 

Joe's fruit and vegetables

We kept bumping into folk we knew from Licata, it was like the whole wintering population at the marina were popping up over Malta. We met Jane and Tom, Wolfgang and Martina, and several others. Jane and Tom took our enculturation under wing, and dragged us into St Johns co-cathedral, where we saw two wonderful Caravaggio's, and then into the old Manoel theatre, third oldest still functioning theatre in Europe.

St John's Co-cathedral

Art in the cathedral

More, but we couldn't photograph the Caravaggio's

Baroque, in its full glory

Main altar 

One of thousands of mosaic floor tiles covering graves

Essence of Baroque

Jane and Megan

Manoel Theatre

Like all good things, Malta was wonderful, but we had to leave sometime. A promising weather window opened up, looked like we had some southerlies for a day or so. So we prepped Pavlov and departed early in the morning, bound for Porto Palo back in Sicily. Our promised wind did not appear, so we motored the 60 odd miles of the crossing, until the wind arrived just two miles off the Sicilian coast. It arrived with a vengeance, and we found Porto Palo to be very uncomforted and rolly. We snuck around the corner and anchored in the lee of Passero Island, finding a bit of shelter, and a couple of Aussies, who also wintered in Licata. John and Meagan and their catamaran, SeaFox were also seeking shelter. While we were chatting with them on VHF, a breaker interrupted, calling for Pavlov. Unbeknown to us, our old kiwi friends Bob and Joanie Issari from Nemir had anchored in Porto Palo, and were gritting their teeth with the wind. They tendered to the headland, and John picked them up on our side of the bay. We all had a wonderful re-union, kindly hosted by SeaFox. The cruising world is a very small world indeed!!