The Sun Sets as the Moon Rises

Birżebbuġa was a nice quiet anchorage giving us good protection from the northerly winds forecasted for the following few days. The village here was busy with many people cooling down in the sea at the beach, known as ‘Pretty bay’.

We left Ziggy in the bay and took Ed and Fred to the neighbouring traditional fishing village of Marsaxlokk ‘zigzagging’ between the many colourful wooden fishing boats called Luzzus, anchored in the bay.

After a substantial breakfast in a waterfront restaurant we visited the Sunday market which is popular with locals and tourists. Stalls are set up around the harbour and sell a range of fresh fish and seafood, fruit and vegetables along with the usual variety of souvenirs, clothes, household goods etc.

The village is also extremely picturesque with smart building and doors painted in rainbow colours.

The parish church stands in the centre of the village, it is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, The Madonna of Pompeii. Various village feasts with religious processions and spectacular firework displays are held here throughout the year and the streets were decorated ready for a celebration.

We managed to have a quick look inside before being ushered out as it was closing. The interior was decorated in gold, white and red with historical statues including one of the Madonna and Child.

We stocked up with some essentials, and returned to Ziggy where we spent the next couple of days onboard doing some jobs, of which there are always plenty. We were planning some longer passages once we left Malta so wanted to make sure that everything was working well while we were in an area where new parts are readily available.

There was a problem with our engine compartment extractor fan and having already bought a new one, along with all the necessary cabling and fittings, during one of our many visits to chandlery’s, this needed installing, the old wiring to it also had to be replaced.

Since arriving in Malta we had grown a small garden under the hull so I took the opportunity for a swim with the fishes and scraped the bottom while Paul fiddled with his engine.

Once ZigZag was shipshape, we took a bus back to Valletta and went to the port to check out. A huge cruise ship was moored there.

Originally we planned a trip straight across to Cephalonia but the forecast showed some thunderstorms out at sea so we changed our plans and decided to go north towards Sicily and then along the sole of Italy where hopefully we would still be in range to receive internet and regular weather updates.

The next morning we lifted the anchor at first light and left the bay avoiding a stream of container ships on their way in. We set our course to head north towards Sicily. It was very hot and sunny with just a light breeze, we passed a group of dolphins but they weren’t interested in swimming along with us, it looked like they were busy trying to catch their lunch. We arrived at Porto Palo on the southeast tip of Sicily just before sunset and anchored for the night.

Following our journey to Sicily, Paul suspected a problem with the water intake to the engine so he changed the water strainer hoping that would resolve the issue. He also checked the impeller and that there wasn’t a blockage under the boat at the water inlet but couldn’t find any faults. We ran the engine for a while at anchor and everything seemed to be running ok.

The next day we left the bay and headed northeast towards the sole of Italy, but we were a couple of miles out of the bay when the engine alarm went off to signal that it had overheated so we quickly stopped the engine. The wind was light but we managed to sail very slowly back to Porto Palo and drop anchor again.

Once the engine had cooled down, Paul restarted it and he came up with a big smile. A small growth/creature had dislodged itself from down the pipe and appeared in the strainer, once this was removed, water was freely pumping through.

The following morning we made our second attempt to leave as the sun rose, but we didn’t even make it out of the bay before engine alarms were sounding again, so back we went.

By now we were feeling very disheartened as we were convinced that the blockage had been cleared. We considered our options for repair, and whether we needed to bring in an expert, unfortunately facilities are limited at this bay. However, this time it was user error. I asked Paul if he had reopened the water inlet seacock, and after telling me ‘yes’ three times, some doubt must have crept into his mind and he went down to double check and came back up very sheepishly! Having run the engine without any water this time, he decided to also change the impeller. A short while later we set off for Italy again, third time lucky.

Once out of the bay we had a good force 3-4 northeasterly wind, just the way we wanted to go, the sails went up and we sailed slightly off course and tacked our way towards the toe of Italy. Although we were doing good speed, unfortunately, we were heading towards Egypt so it was slow progress towards our destination. The wind eventually dropped in the evening so the engine went on and we were able to steer back on course. The sun went down over the calm sea and a bright full moon rose over the horizon lighting the sky.

At 23:00 a northerly wind picked up to force 4-5, the sails went up with a reef in both, and we had a lively night, speeding along in the right direction. We were making good progress and heading towards the toe of Italy. The moon went down, taking the wind with it just as the sun rose through an orange haze to start another clear sunny day.

Throughout the day we had a few hours of wind followed by a few of no wind so the sails went up and down several times. Other than our sail changes, not much else was happening, there were hardly any other ships and we only saw dolphins once briefly in the distance, but we did rescue a flamingo.

We had planned to go into Crotone on the ball of the foot of Italy, but we were due to arrive at midnight so we changed our plan again and decided to carry on to Erikoussa, a small island north of Corfu, adding approximately another 100 nm onto the journey.

Another night similar to the last with a beautiful sunset over the water and a full bright moon, but unfortunately no wind, we had a calm sea and motored all night.

The sun rose on day three and finally the northerly wind returned so we sailed all day to Erikoussa.

After 56 hours at sea and 290nm, we dropped our anchor in the bay. It was quite busy with boats when we arrived but we managed to find a space. It was very calm and we were looking forward to a good night sleep. However, at 06:00 we heard a knocking on the boat, the harbour master was telling all the boats to leave as a tanker was coming into the bay to refuel the islands generator. So much for catching up with some sleep. We had been considering having a quiet day at anchor.

We decided that as we had to move the boat, we would just head to our next destination. Albania is just 20nm east so we put the sails up and set our course to Sarandë. We anchored in the large bay which is a big beach holiday resort surrounded by hotels and apartments, pirate ships, ferries, ribs and jet skis were all wizzing around the bay.

We had arranged an agent (which is mandatory in Albania) to check us in and she was very efficient so it was all done in ten minutes. We then went for a walk around the bay as it had now been five days since we had stepped on dry land! As the mid-afternoon heat started to get the better of us we found an inviting cocktail bar so took a seat and celebrated arriving in a new country.