Malta

We have been in Malta since Sunday afternoon - loving it here! Earthy, gritty (but in a charming way), rich with so much history. We will be here until Friday/Saturday waiting out high winds and stormy weather coming from the NW. Once it has passed we will make a dash for Sardinia.


The following was written by Ellen during our passage and approach to Malta......

Sunday Oct 19th 12:00  We are about 25 nautical miles out of Malta.  We are passing through the gauntlet of about 18 ships of all sizes anchored in the open sea waiting for their turn to enter Malta.  This is day 5 of our passage to Malta.  We have been fighting a strong head wind from the west for 3 and a half of the 5 days.  For most of the time our sailboat has been heeled {tilted to one side}.  So life has been interesting with regard to eating, sleeping, cooking and going to the head.  The stove "floats" so we can always cook.


We take turns doing night watches, Cress and  I (Ellen) from 9pm to 2am then Irena and Barb till 7am.   Barb and I have moved into to the salon to sleep.   The v berth {in bow} is too rough for sleeping and also we have a leak coming from the forward hatch from the spray of salt water coming over the bow.  The weather has been great but the nights and star gazing have been outstanding.  Barb has an app on her iPhone to help us figure out some of the constellations.  There is always the milky way and the big dipper no matter where you are the world.  Last night Cress put out a lawn chair on the aft deck so we could watch the meteor shower show.  I relaxed and had my feet up in the lawn chair gazing the sky. 

We are looking forward to about 3 or 4 days in and around Malta.  Have you noticed that I have been using sailing terms?  Yes!!  My education of the language of Sailing is expanding.  It started before I stepped onto the gangplank onto the sailboat.  O silly me, it's not a pirate ship.  I was thinking of the grandkids. The parisole is the correct name for the gangway.  Cress and Irena have been so patient in showing us the ropes and there are a lot of ropes on board but they are not called ropes but rather "lines". Sometimes they look into our eyes to see if we understand but they see only the "deer in the head lights" blank stare.   We have 3 sails; the Mainsail, the Genoa and the Staysail, all of  which in turn have there own lines.  The line to pull up the Mainsail  is called the halyard.   Good thing I knew where port and starboard are MOST of the time. 

As I walk around the deck of the boat I hold onto a lifeline which encirles the boat. The most important rule? "Do not fall off the boat, DO NOT FALL OFF THE BOAT!!!  From reefs, boom ,vang ,windvane, backstay, topping lift, dodger, and list goes on, good thing there is no written test.  When I am at the helm, Cress asks me to sail high (he does not mean on drugs!) so I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right.  I have warded off Alzheimer's for at least a few more years with all this new knowledge.  As we zig and zag (Opps I mean tack) across the Med, I am looking forward to every new moment.  Land ! I see LAND!!!  Malta here we come.