Swimming with Jelly Fish, Sailing Malta and Discovering WW2 Family War Heroes. Ep. 22

After a tow into Malta in the last blog we woke to find ourselves surrounded by super yachts in the most expensive dock in Malta – Grand Harbour Marina.

We quickly checked in, bled the fuel lines, fuelled up and limped around the corner to Creek Marina – the CHEAPEST marina in Malta! Although at €75/night, it still wasn’t ‘cheap’ by our budget.

Jacques from JV Services was recommended to us and with a constant supply of Yorkshire tea, Jacques got down to it and diagnosed a turbo and exhaust mixer problem with our Volvo TMD22 engine – totally seized and corroded.

Next Woody found himself being whisked through Valletta to Hugo’s outboard repair workshop. Our Evenrude 15HP 2-stroke outboard has never worked properly but after Hugo’s attention and some stern words from Valletta’s 2-stroke outboard guru, it was working great again.

Meanwhile back at the boat, the rest of us carried on with home schooling, domestic chores and getting to know our new neighbours

On our starboard side, a French liveaboard family had four girls, eight ducklings and dog called Fix. Naturally the kids took to them immediately! They were setting sail soon and were looking for a home for the ducklings. Amazingly we stumbled upon a duck sanctuary run by a lovely man called Joseph. But by the time we returned the ducks had already found a new home!

Craig and Lisa left us and we were joined by Woody’s Dad (the kids Granddad). We headed out for a sightseeing tour of Valletta – a city steeped in history. We were particularly keen to see the George Cross at the War Museum, awarded to the Maltese people for their heroism in World War Two.

We had a family connection here too – the kids’ Great, Great Uncle was a navigator in WW2 and his name is inscribed on the airman’s cenotaph in Valletta. Sergeant Alfred Levy – who (we think) flew Sunderland Flying Boats, went missing in action, Christmas 1941 flying sorties over the Mediterranean. Granddad also gave the kids an insight into rationing in post war Britain. It turned out Granddad hadn’t tried chocolate until his 10th Birthday!

Back at the marina ANOTHER family were having a dock party – a great way to unwind and meet more lovely people. As liveaboards we don’t really have a conventional community, but we do have a roving network constantly on the move, so it was great to see old friends from Lefkas Marina there too.
Jacques finally fitted our new turbo and exhaust elbow and after sea trials, gave us the all clear to explore the rest of Malta with the boat.

We also had a tip-off from members of the ocean cruising club (OCC) about free mooring buoys in Sliema bay, so we headed there for a few nights before heading on to Blue Lagoon on Comino Island – between Malta and Gozo.

It turned out to be a busy place so we found a quieter anchorage to swim, snorkel and dive and had lots of fun filming with the GoPro underwater. We got some great shots cleaning the underside of the boat as well as swimming with jelly fish!

By evening however, just a few boats remained. One of them – SYSarah.net skippered by Thomas – had a new banana boat that needed testing, so our three eager kids were more than happy to give it a go!

Next stop – Xlendy Bay – a tricky anchorage on the island of Gozo where we tied off to rocks with shorelines. It had only one tiny shop for provisioning, but it was well equipped with everything from HP Sauce and Nutella to beard oil and bananas!

Next stop was an anchorage in Dwejra bay or Fungus [Rock] Bay which looked like a volcanic crater.

I tried my newly acquired hair cutting skills that Julie had taught me during winter… my efforts weren’t a roaring success it has to be said.

The main reason for our visit was to find a tunnel we’d heard went through the cliffs into a secret lagoon beyond.

We searched the area in the dinghy and eventually found it hidden in the rocks. Driving through it was the freakiest thing I’ve ever done!

Eventually we returned to Valletta for some final repairs, a rig check, a refuel and to say goodbye to Malta. We stocked up on antifoul and other things for some jobs ahead and finally we set sail to Tunisia in North Africa.

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