The 1935 Ryanair flight yesterday, Fri Sept 2nd, was delayed for best part of an hour so it was nearly 0100 before we even got to the taxi rank at Malta airport. For the first time ever, we had to queue for a taxi after paying €20 at the kiosk. It’s a prepaid, set fare system irrespective of time or day so you always know what you are paying. Previously, there has been a small queue to pay but usually there are loads of taxis waiting. Not sure if the Malta vs Scotland Football World Cup qualifier had anything to do with it as someone said that they were expecting 10,000 supporters. Anyway, it was after 0200 when we finally went to bed, both pretty tired after a 0600 start to the day at home to ensure we had done our work before catching our flight.

Nimrod has been moved to the breakwater as it’s high season and the owners’ of the various berths we ‘borrow’ the rest of the year are, unsurprisingly, wanting to moor their boat in their own spots!  Peter had done a grand job looking after Nimrod over the year including repainting the top sides.

It always takes much more time than you think it will to get a boat ready when you’ve left it for a couple of months what with putting everything back out on deck, blowing up the dinghy (which appears to not want to stay inflated) and getting a food shop to name a few. The trip to the supermarket took us a while as we had run our stocks down last time deliberately. We thought we had spent around €100 and that would mean that we were entitled to 12 litres of free mineral water. In the end, we had spent over €200 and so we were given 24 litres instead so we treated ourselves to a cab back to the boat!

Being in Malta never fails to impress us with its fantastic views and laid back style. Just by the marina there is a public bathing spot in the harbour. The rocks were packed today with locals but I’m not sure I’d want to swim in harbour water knowing the kind of stuff that’s regularly discharged into it.

We decided that tonight we would eat on board as we wouldn’t be tied to a time, which was just as well as we didn’t have lunch until 5pm and then Liz decided she wanted to reglue the headlining in the main saloon. It was probably a wise decision as the temperature had been in the mid 30s all day and was dropping to a cool 24 degrees C for the evening/night. Perfect for sitting in the cockpit and watching the world go by as the sun sets.