It’s Only Rock’n’Roll

My sister and her family were due to arrive in two days so we lifted the anchor leaving Mellieha bay behind, and headed south again. There was no wind but quite a lot of swell so we decided to go to Rinella bay which is just inside the protection of Grand Harbour.

It was very impressive entering into the historic part of Grand Harbour, the sun was just going down behind the enormous buildings surrounding us whilst we were dwarfed down on the water in our tiny boat.

Rinella bay is usually full of small motor boats during the day as it is a great position for visiting Valletta. With this in mind we arrived early evening which is usually the time that they all leave, giving us plenty of space to anchor for the night. It is a relatively small bay with some old shipwrecks on the seabed, luckily these are charted so we managed to find a safe space to drop the anchor (we hoped).

We had a quiet calm night here, just as we were preparing to leave the following day, the boat next to us was trying to lift their anchor which appeared to be stuck on something on the sea bed, they spent some time manoeuvring around to free it before giving up and making themselves a cup of coffee. We prepared to lift ours feeling a little nervous as our anchor was quite close to theirs, so we were worried that we may also be caught up. We lifted the chain very slowly and were relieved when the anchor was off the ground without any problems and we were on our way, after letting the cruise ship leave before us.

Our plan was to head back to St Julian’s bay to meet up with our guests in the evening. The swell was forecast to be from the south so the anchorage would have been reasonably protected, however, when we arrived, it was coming more from the east and rolling into the bay at St Julian’s which wasn’t ideal. We wouldn’t normally stay in an unprotected anchorage but it was convenient to go ashore and meet up with my sister and family, also it was only 10 minutes walk for them from their hotel.

We met up in the evening for drinks and dinner at a very nice friendly waterside restaurant, the waiter photobombed our picture.

We returned to ZigZag and she was rocking and rolling around all night, it was like being out on passage, everything had to be fixed down, and we didn’t manage much sleep. Luckily our guests had the hotel rather than staying on board. However, having never been on Ziggy they were eager to come on board the next morning.

The swell had reduced slightly but it was still a little rock and roll, not quite what they expected and they were soon keen to get off the boat and in to the water swimming and paddle boarding. Our cure if anyone is feeling seasick is always Pringles, we did manage to get through a few packs during the afternoon. We took them back to dry land later and they still felt like they were rocking, I guess they haven’t found their sea legs yet. After a few drinks and dinner ashore they seem to have recovered.

Having had a couple of nights of little sleep, rocking and rolling in St Julian’s bay, and with stronger winds forecast, we headed north back to Mellieha bay which was well protected from the wind and swell. After identifying the best place to drop our anchor on our last visit, we were pleased that it held first time. We spent a day here sitting out strong winds while our guests did a tour of the island. By the evening it calmed down as the sun went down leaving a colourful sky.

Once the wind had passed, our guests were now feeling brave and wanted to go out for a sail, they had a short taxi ride to come and meet us in Mellieha bay. After breakfast in a nice cafe watching all the day trip boats go out, we headed back to Ziggy over the opposite side of the bay and prepared to leave. We planned to move back closer towards their hotel resort but with a residual swell still running, it wouldn’t have been comfortable in St Julian’s bay so we treated ourselves to another night at Manoel Island Marina.

There was a force 3 westerly wind as we set off on the 10nm journey. Once out of the bay, the sails went up and we were making good speed with a slight lean, everyone was holding on. With our new crew and helmsmen it was nice to sit back, let them do all the work and relax.

It didn’t take long until we arrived at the marina, time for a celebratory gin and tonic before catching the bus to show them the sites of Valletta.

The Grandmaster’s Palace stands in the city centre with a commemorative engraving from Buckingham Palace, I tried to look inside but it was heavily guarded.

The sun went down and it was time for a drink, of course the tour included a trip to ‘The Pub’.

The wind and swell calmed down so our guests joined us again for a sail back to St Julian’s the following day. A slightly calmer sail with just a force 2 northwesterly. When we arrived the bay was busier and difficult to find a space which was not too close to other boats or buoys, but after 3 attempts we finally succeeded.

It was the final day of their holiday, my nephew had been waiting all week to go to the water park so I joined them on a visit there. Being the last day of the season, there were no queues, I braved each slide at least once, some of which were literally vertical, I felt more at home in the wave pool.

When we arrived back in St Julian’s bay it was much calmer and our visitors were feeling more comfortable on the boat so we returned to Ziggy in the evening for dinner.

The week flew by and it was soon time for them to leave which is always sad. Even after arriving home they said they still felt like they were rocking and rolling! Now it is time for us to start planning to leave Malta and move onto our winter mooring.