Nimrod Oceanlord

We arrived onto Nimmie late on Friday night (Sept 11th) to find her all open and a ladder against the mast. Down below was not much better. We couldn’t figure out what was going on given that Peter, our caretaker, knew we were coming. Anyway, we went to bed and thought we would sort it out in the morning.

Saturday arrived and we were none the wiser until we got a phone call from the man himself – from his hospital bed! He had been picking up a part for us and came off his scooter the previous afternoon. Several broken ribs and a punctured lung meant he will be out of action for a while although that didn’t stop him phoning and texting us over the next 24 hours. His son came round and finished off the deck light replacement and picked up the ladder and Peter’s tools.

By the time this was all completed, it meant that we couldn’t go for a day sail with Liz’s work colleague and her family. Still, we did do the food shopping and get Nimmie ready for her sail across to Sicily. The fridge was still playing up so we got lots of ice to keep the beers cold! A delightful evening was had with Sue and family, polished off with a meal at the yacht club.

We caught the late flight from Luton on Weds evening (June 24th) arriving at the marina just before 1am. We discovered that the marina office had changed the metering system for the electricity and water so the security chaps met us to ensure all was working. We initially thought that they had changed the entry fob system as well but that was all working fine. Friends, James and Minh, came out with us for the long weekend. They have sailed their Southerly 42 around the UK and are planning going south from the UK in the not too distant future so were keen to see how we were set up for liveaboard living in hotter climes.

Thursday morning was spent sorting the boat out and shopping. The fridge decided to stop working so Peter kindly got a fridge engineer out to us to re-gas the system. We thought that had done the trick but soon after he had left, we could smell burning from the compressor. We immediately turned it off and went out to buy ice, a lot of it! Suspect we will need a new one! Then, after lunch, we set sail. Our intention was to find nice coves to anchor in, dive off the back of the boat and generally chill for the next few days. We had a great sail from Valletta to the other side of the island.

We had intended on anchoring in Tuftieha Bay as we had seen it at Easter with Liz’s parents and it looked lovely. Unfortunately, in high season the majority of the bay is cordoned off for swimming so we had to anchor in the next bay, Gnejna. By now, the wind was still gusting over 20 knots and it was getting late so decided on a pasta meal on board. The wind died down with the sunset in the sheltered bay so we spent the evening chatting in the cockpit.

It turned out to be a lovely overnight spot although the anchored boats appeared to have peeked the interest of the Maltese military. We could only assume that they had stepped up their vigilance due to the migrant crisis. After a lovely swim in the morning, we sailed over to Gozo, the second largest island in the Maltese archipelago.

A lot of military activity whilst anchored in Gnejna Bay

We managed to sail most of the way to a place called Fungus Rock, near to the Azure Window. Once through the narrow entrance, it can be a very sheltered spot. James and Minh went for a swim and Minh managed to get stung by a jelly fish. We quickly poured vinegar over the bite then rubbed antihistamine cream on it which seemed to do the trick. By now, the swell was coming in and the holding wasn’t great with a thin layer of sand over rock so we decided to pull up the anchor and go round to the north coast of Malta.

Mellieha Bay is a huge bay with plenty of anchoring space. We decided to nip under a cliff just inside the entrance that gave us shelter from the wind, as it was blowing hard again, as well as the swell. We only had a few other boats as company. Again, we got there quite late but managed to have a BBQ on the back of the board and just spent the evening chilling.

Let’s hope it all works!

The next day, Saturday, was sunny and very warm so we took the opportunity to try out the new scuba diving gear. We had great teachers in James and Minh who both dive so felt confident having a go. We only want it to be able to go under the boat to clean it and check it regularly. The Mini B scuba gear we bought has a small 5L canister in it which provides about 20-30 mins of air.

As the morning progressed, the wind got up and more boats came and anchored very close to us. We had let out quite a bit of chain the night before as it was windy so we were getting concerned that other boats were laying their anchors over ours. We had already decided to make our way back to Valletta so that we could clean and sort the boat out before spending the evening in the city. We had yet another great sail and arrived into our new berth just as the wind was gusting around 20 knots – lovely! Luckily, all was well although it did help having four of us to quickly moor up. After spending a couple of hours getting the boat ready to be left for a couple of months, we all had showers in the Yacht Club and made our way into the main city.

We had a lovely evening showing them the sights before having a meal on the ramparts. We had such a lovely time but it ended far too quickly. It was great just chilling and sailing in lovely company and great crew. Looking forward to next time!

I’m not sure where the time goes when we are on the boat but yesterday was no exception. We had planned to spend the day being tourists but didn’t mange to leave the boat until 1pm. We then took a bus to St Julian (€1.50 all day ticket) to go to the Hilton hotel and the Portomaso marina. Liz stayed at the Hilton when she was working in Malta about 8 years ago. The marina is very sheltered and full of motor boats with a few sail boats. The water is almost turquoise, which is unusual so not sure if they deliberately put sand on the bottom when they built it!

Next stop was St Paul’s Bay further north. Another bus, using the same ticket. This bay is named after St Paul who was shipwrecked here in AD60. At the top of the bay lies the National Aquarium and next door, Cafe Del Mar. It is part of the Aquarium rather than associated with the bar of the same name on Ibiza! However, free settees in the sun with very reasonably priced drinks made for a very pleasant afternoon. There is an infinity pool there but to use it you have to hire the loungers. However, the place was very chilled and relaxed so suspect you could have gone in and no one would have minded. It was too windy yesterday to try but very warm (26C) out of the wind.

We got back around 7pm having taken another bus that took us via Mosta rather than the busy tourist route along the coast. Our last evening meal on board watching the world go by. It seems that Malta has really got into the summer season now with more people about, cafes on the seafront full and more people down on their boats in the marina. There is a real buzz about the place.

This morning has been spent getting the boat ready to leave for a month as we are back at the end of June for a long weekend. As our flight isn’t until 1645, it’s been a very relaxed final morning with the temperature up in the high 20s by noon. Can’t believe that two weeks has  gone so quickly, but then great holidays always do, don’t they?