Malta - Valletta Handover
22 June 2015 | Malta
Ros Brice
We were sitting high up by the sea wall of the Grand Harbour enjoying a local beer when we noticed two yachts making their way into port. Garth immediately announced that the second of the yachts was Trilogy,which surprised us all, as she was not expected for another two days. However, from our checking of weather patterns on Predict Wind, we knew that a big blow was on its way and it made sense that Trilogy had decided to cross from Syracuse on the east coast of Sicily to Malta, ahead of schedule. Garth quickly contacted Rick, to let him know we had spotted their stealthy entry.
The night before handover has traditionally been a night for the changeover crews to meet for a meal and share stories. We spent a wonderful evening together at Sciacca Grill with so many Canberra friends, at a quality restaurant that specialises in serving the best cuts of steak, sourced from around the globe. Each guest selects a cut of meat from the impressive display which included: rib eye on or off the bone, eye fillet, T bone, chateaubriand, bison, venison, pork fillet steaks, veal chops plus multiple sausage varieties. All were perfectly cooked to order with a combination of chargrill and oven method. Most serving sizes were 300gms so we all had plenty to eat!
Next day, excitement was mounting when we cleared Hotel Castille and headed for Manoel Island Marina. There was the usual flurry of activity with handover between skippers, clearing customs and victualling but by evening we felt pretty content. The wind that had been blowing for days was still quite strong but Predict Wind promised abating seas for the morrow.
After a few final checks and full safety briefing, we set sail late morning for Mallieha Bay, immediately north of St Paul's Bay, where St Paul was shipwrecked but all on board managed to survive. We needed to brush up on our sailing knowledge but with some patience from the skipper, we soon had the main hoisted and Trilogy settled. By late afternoon we anchored in good company with Kokomo, a sleek black hulled sloop of 59 metres, with 10 metre beam and a mast that had five spreaders. Kokomo is the largest sailing vessel ever built. The tender was equally a mean machine!
Skidoos were buzzing all around, some going at ridiculous speed, so much so that we felt like we were in a James Bond movie set. That didn't deter us from quietly slipping into the refreshing water for a glorious first swim, downing a few GNT's and later supping on a tasty spaghetti bolognaise, courtesy of the pressure cooker. Kokomo looked magnificent with her blue underwater lights and soft lighting at the spreaders on the tall mast. Equally, the bay was picturesque with twinkling house lights, flood lit churches and purple ridge-top street lamps surrounding us. What a great start and we had a passage to Sicily in the morning to look forward to!