Sunday was a day of planning and exploring. Planning the routes and waypoints for the various combinations between Malta and Brindisi (where we need to be by May 31st) and exploring parts of Valletta that we hadn’t seen before.

As always, the planning takes longer than expected as we have various options when we leave – north to Syracuse in Sicily to anchor in a lovely sheltered harbour or NE to Roccella Ionica on the sole of Italy. It will all depend on the sea and wind conditions. I know the forecast is for a NW wind on Tuesday evening but it was supposed to be that today and it swung round to the SW by 2pm!

As it’s likely that we won’t be in Malta again (but who knows), we decided to go into town on Sunday afternoon and visit the war rooms underneath the battery at Barrakuh Gardens. We arrived just at 4pm when the Guns are fired on a daily basis.

We then went to the Lascaris War Rooms that were built into the rock and housed the HQ of the defence of Malta during WWII. It was an interesting hour spent looking at how the operations rooms were set out and the tactics used to defend the island. There was also a film made in 1943 after the blockade was lifted, narrated by Lord Olivier.

We caught the ferry back to Sliema for a farewell drink and then on the walk home came across a newly installed memorial for the 89 lives lost on the submarine, HMS Olympus, that hit a mine in 1940. Very poignant after the afternoon we had spent.