Finding Good Anchorages

With a light northeasterly wind, we slipped our lines at Manoel Island Marina and headed 10nm towards the southern region of Malta. As we left Grand Harbour behind, full sails went up. Unfortunately, the wind was not quite strong enough to fill the sails, so it wasn’t long before the motor was back on. At least the sun was out, the sea was flat and it was only a two hour journey.

On our approach to St George’s bay, we passed many fish farms, the first thing you see as you enter the bay is a large gas ship, power station and a huge container ship terminal.

There were a few boats anchored, lots of buoys, fishing pots and an underwater cable running out to the container terminal, so there didn’t look like there would be enough space for us. However, after some careful consideration (and few other options) we plucked up some courage, dropped the anchor and managed to squeeze in between everything.

Being anchored close to the busy shipping terminal at least kept Paul entertained as he watched ships come in and be unloaded and loaded by the huge cranes before going on their way again. Our grandson would have sat for hours watching them.

Opposite the terminal is the seaside town of Birżebbuġa (translates to a ‘well of olives’). We launched Ed and Fred and went into the small fishing harbour to go ashore for a look around.

There are still some of the old stone buildings tucked in among the many modern apartment blocks.

The town is popular among Maltese holidaymakers, and is known for its sandy beach, which was a lovely clean beach with clear blue sea.

Unfortunately, the outlook was of the busy shipping terminal, not the view you expect when relaxing on a beach, it is quite ironic that it is called Pretty Bay!

We had a few chores to do ashore, including a long hot walk to the islands main gas terminal, where we were able to get our small gas bottles refilled with the cheapest gas we have found in years.

When we finally arrived back in Pretty Bay we decided that we had earned lunch at a beachside cafe. As I mentioned last week, Malta is very British, so having not had proper fish and chips in months, we treated ourselves. We certainly weren’t disappointed, the fish was fresh and it was all very good and very large!

The following day was market day in the nearby traditional fishing village of Marsaxlokk (meaning southeastern port). It has the largest fishing harbour in Malta.

We set off early to walk around the coast as we had heard that the fresh fish quickly sells out. Marsaxlokk has a pretty harbour, with brightly coloured wooden Maltese fishing boats called Luzzu. Traditionally they have the eyes of Osiris painted on the bow which is believed to protect the fishing boat and fishermen while at sea.

The use of these boats dates back to the early 20th century and they are still used daily by local fishermen to haul in their catch.

We arrived at the market where the stalls are set up around the harbour, everything can be found here including clothing, housewares, souvenirs and fresh fruit and vegetables. There is also a section where the fishermen sell their catch of the day with a whole range of different fresh fish and shellfish.

After filling our bags, we bumped into our friends from Wahoo who invited us to their boat for coffee. They then took us in their dinghy back around the bay to Ziggy which saved us from having to do the return walk with our, now very heavy, bags. We dropped our shopping off before going back to Birżebbuġa with them for a short walk along the seafront towards the shipping terminal. There were 19th century salt pans, an early 20th century military seaplane base and torpedo depot plus a memorial to mark an important meeting held here between George W Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signaling the end of the Cold War. We returned back to the beach in time for another lunch.

We have guests from home due to visit soon so we decided to move on and hunt out some suitable bays to take them to, which would hopefully be sheltered from the forthcoming winds and swell.

The following morning we left the anchorage, along with a small container ship, and motored out avoiding the fish farms and rocks again. Our course was set to head 11nm northwest. As we came around the peninsula the wind increased, so the sails went up and with a force 3 westerly wind we were flying along. Unfortunately, with the wind almost directly in front of us, we were heading slightly off course and had to tack after an hour. By then the wind was no longer consistent and kept changing direction, at times it seemed like we were going backwards!

We finally entered into St Julian’s bay, again it didn’t look like there was enough space for us with several boats already anchored and lots of local mooring buoys. Luckily a large catamaran was just preparing to leave so we waited patiently until they left then quickly dropped our anchor in the vacant space.

We went ashore to have a walk around and found a busy seaside town with a small beach area, hotels and apartments. Away from the seafront there were some grand buildings and streets of terraced houses with overhanging loggias in the classic Maltese style.

After walking up and down the steep streets (the photos don’t show just how steep they are!) we could see Ziggy down in the bay.

In the evening we ventured back to shore to check out the hotel where our guests had booked to stay in St George’s bay (a different St George’s bay!) just a short walk away. It was in the party district of Paceville, the centre of the action and the evening was already starting to get very busy. There were plenty of bars, restaurants and nightclubs, a casino, cinema, bowling alley, gentlemen’s clubs, a big shopping centre etc, well, they did say that they didn’t want anywhere remote! We returned to St Julian’s and found a quieter bar to stop for a drink before returning to Ziggy.

The wind was due to turn to the east so after a couple of days we moved 6nm further north to St Paul’s bay and anchored outside Perched beach and the town of Qawra. There was a couple of other boats anchored when we arrived but they left by the evening and we had the bay to ourselves.

There was some swell rolling in on the first night here but by the second day, it was very sheltered from the wind and swell. We’ve found that as Malta is surrounded by large expanses of water it is very open to swell from all directions and it is a little challenging to find good anchorages that are protected from the wind, waves and swell which always seem to each come from different directions.

St Paul’s Bay is quieter than other bays and still retains a little of the traditional Maltese village life. It has a higher concentration of Maltese people living there permanently, with more summer residences also being bought by the locals. We took Ed and Fred on a dinghy adventure to the neighbouring town called Buġibba where we found a very good, well protected ‘dinghy’ dock. It is a small cove close to the Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck, it provides protection from rough seas with a breakwater to shelter both leisure and fishing vessels.

After a few days relaxing on the boat, there was due to be stronger winds from the north so we decided to move to the opposite side of the bay which would be more protected. However, there was a lot of weed on the seabed and we couldn’t get our anchor to hold, after a couple of attempts we gave up and moved around the peninsular to Mellieha bay. We eventually got the anchor to hold on the third attempt here. Normally I target a sandy patch in between the weed, but it was 12 meters deep, the water was choppy in the wind and it was not clear enough to be able to see the bottom.

Just as we had finished mooring, our friends on Wahoo arrived and dropped their anchor right behind us (it held first time) and we went to visit them for ‘anchor’ drinks.