Cruising CY 2007
(Updated June11, 2007)
Sicily to Malta
Tons of Traffic All Around!
There was a lot of traffic between Sicily and Malta and our AIS unit helped us see it all. We had 2 close crossing encounters. Our AIS unit detected the close crossings long before the freighters were in sight. Because they could possibly change their track during the interim, we held-off contacting them until they were in sight. Both freighters, who we were able to call by their vessels name thanks to AIS, agreed to the crossing situation. Normally we would not cross in front of a freighter with only a half mile to spare, but they acknowledged the crossing and though they were the privileged vessels and we the burdened, they altered their course slightly to increase the safety margin.
Shipping Traffic on our way to Malta from Siracusa, Italy
(Note: The Green Line is Dakare's Route to Malta)
Areas of Interest on this Page:
St. Catherines Festival, Zejtun
Msidi (Town and Marina)
Google Earth Views of Malta
Malta Harbor (Looking North)
Detail of Msidi Marina showing the location of Dakare (Looking South)
A View of Msidi Marina Where We Kept Dakare
The Black Pearl (Mare Nostrum)
Once owned by Errol Flynn in the 50's, it is now a restaurant - in our opinion the best thing about the Black Pear is that it provides us our WiFi connection to the Internet
(The View is Taken From Our WiFi Antenna on the Bow of Dakare)
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The Black Pearl was built in 1909 in Sweden. It is one of the last surviving trading schooners (Not in Service.) Originally named the Black Opel, it has no relationship to the Black Pear in Pirates of the Caribbean. 150' LOA; 90' Masts, Load - 400 Tons; 9000 SqFt of Canvas - she usually carried grain, coal and wood. On her first voyage to the South Pacific, she developed Weevil Worm. She was on her way back to England to be repaired when just into the Med from the Suez canal, a fire broke out. Badly damaged, she was towed to Malta for repairs, where she sank in Marsamxett Harbor in 70 feet of water. She was salvaged by Maltese locals and restored to her former glory. At that point, she played a prominent part in the film Popeye which was also filmed in Malta. In 1981 she sank again in a storm and was raised & restored over a period of 6 years. When completed, she still featured her original timbers and was turned into a restaurant and bar, Mare Nostrum - FYI, The food there is good.
Our WiFi antenna... Thank You Black Pearl !
is working so well that the signal we are putting out (Repeating) is better than the one we are receiving from the Black Pearl. We have planned a dinner at the Black Pearl for all those who are receiving our WiFi repeater signal originating from the Black Pear to say thank you to them for providing the service. The Management seems to be quite pleased to see this reciprocity.
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A Tale of a Cat & a Rat
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Healthy Josh with all his shots and Passport
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This rat went floating by our boat
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Awaiting Karen's Input to tell the tale!
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Karen is busy Varnishing the Toe Rails
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...and hopefully, she is enjoying it!
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Taking time out to Varnish!
Valletta (Old Town - Fortified Fortress)
Pics from Old Town & Fortress
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Old Town Valetta from Sea
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The Fortress from Dakare at Msidi Marina
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More Valetta (Old Town) Pics
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Karen's Lace Salesman in the local Market
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The Open Air Market - Valetta
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"The" Film About Malta's History - Excellent!
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The Museum of the Knights d'Hospitaliers
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Both Pagan and Christian Practices
Fishermen have always been know for their...
willingness to call on any source that can help them survive the difficulties and dangers of their lives. That is one of the reasons why most Maltese boats are named after Saints, but another curious, paganistic, contrarian Christian ritual is displayed on the prows of most fishing vessels and that is the Eye of Osiris. Osiris is the Egyptian god of the underworld. They call, much like the Turkish and Greek boats we encountered, for the eyes to ward off evil. It was Seth, a fellow god, who according to legend, killed Osiris by drowning and tore his body up into 14 parts and dispersed them all over the world. The goddess Isis found his remains and buried them giving him new life. Osiris ruled over all life, both living and dead. Egyptian pharaohs believed that when they died that they would be united with Osiris and thus attain immortality. Maltese fishermen grasped at these two icons and always carried an olive branch to calm the seas and to bring them a favorable catch.
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The Eye of Osiris
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Local Maltese Boat with Eye of Osiris
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Many of the colorful fishing boats can be seen in the Harbor
The story of Osiris, olive branches and saints names are only a few of the many Maltese beliefs. Many churches have two clocks in their belfries – one tells the correct time, the other is set to the wrong time in order to confuse and distract the devil. Maltese country homes often have bulls’ horns on the roof, again to ward off the devil. The horns are usually near a holy image, to highlight the importance of their Catholic faith. You cannot take a bus in Malta without seeing the same type of religious iconolatry to provide a safe passage. Clearly Christianity borrowed heavily from pagan religions and no where more than in Malta can this be so easily seen.
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The Bus is named after St. Philip (Upper Right)
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Included is a Compartment with Statues of Mary and Christ with a Lit Halo
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Popeye's Village - Sweethaven
As the Opening lyrics for Popeye, the film, put it:
Sweet, Sweethaven
God must love us...
The original movie set for Popeye is located in Anchor Harbor on the NW side of the main island of Malta. Except for the damage done to the church in a fire, the town is much like it was filmed in the movie. Since the film set was built, streets have been paved, some extra buildings added (mostly to entertain children -except for the wine shop with free wine tasting for the adults) and structures made architecturally sound. What a fun place to visit. The admission includes access to everything, a boat ride in Anchor Bay and a documentary movie covering the filming of the movie.
From the Movie Popeye
Diagram of the Sweet Haven Complex - A Potemkin village at its best
A GE Sat Pic showing Anchor Bay Harbor.
Sweet Haven is all the buildings to the left.
The water was very clear and there was a diving club diving off the pier lower right.
Sweethaven from Sea
Sweethaven Wine... They even have their own Label!!!,
Which can be sampled in their wine tasting shop.
I didn't care for their red, but their white and rose, semi-dry, were both good. More interesting however was
their desert wine which they refer to as their magical wine. Made from cherries, real almonds (not extract) and a variety of herbs, this wine is surprisingly good. In fact, we normally shun sweet wines and desert wines but this was so good and had such an interesting flavor, that I bought a bottle to take home.
Various Scenes from the Movie Set
Palazzo Parisio & Naxxar
Palazzo Parisio, located across the street from the main Cathedral in Naxxar was about a half hour bus ride from the marina. The fare was about 60 cents US and as usual (See above) the bus was well decked our with religious icons.
Palazzo Parisio is a beautiful 19th century Palace and Gardens, built as a winter home in the middle of Malta. The owner spent 8 years building the Palace and lived in it for 5 months before suffering a heart attack and dying. His widow then closed up the Palace and moved permanently to their summer residence where she remained for the rest of her life. The Palace is now being run as a tourist attraction by the surviving heirs.
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I would guess that about half the busses on the island are of 1950's vintage. Well preserved and maintained, they appear to be in excellent working condition.
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Our bus to Naxxar
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Naxxar Cathedral and the Palace on the Left
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Entrance
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Family Coat of Arms
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Much of the Palace Was Done Rococo
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Reminding us of the Breakers in Newport
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Reflection of Room and Ceiling with extremely Ornate Gypsum Carvings
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Various Views of the Gardens
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Mdina
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Mdina is located on the SW end of the island of Malta. From the balcony of the Fontenella Restaurant you can see a great portion of the island of Malta. In the distance on the right one can see the dome of the main cathedral of Valetta (NE) where Dakare is parked.
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The Fontenella Restaurant - Highly Recommended
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Us enjoying a late lunch and the view
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Mdina is known for its Glass Blowing
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Church showing a clock calendar (Month and Day)
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St. Catherines Festival, Zejtun
The Maltese take their summer religious festivals very seriously. Festivities last the entire weekend and usually starts with a salvo of M80 fireworks early in the morning (anywhere from 6-7AM) and that usually continues throughout the entire day well into the night. Fireworks are a given part of any festival and judging from the amount of fireworks exploded, the fireworks industry in Malta is a thriving business. Even more impressive were the decorations employed. This included moving large statues into the streets, setting up highly ornate10 foot banners and streamers, adding extra, very fancy street lights and decorating all of the buildings with lights and other paraphernalia. The inside of the church was also decorated (one would say - over the top) and was filled with boquets of flowers donated by the locals. This creates a very festive environment and it is clear that the amount of work that went into setting up the festival, that a tremendous level of effort was involved. The storage facility alone for storing all of the materials and objects used in the festival must vie in size with an Ikea mega-store.
St. Catherine's Festival, June 16, 17
in Zejtun, Malta
The Blue Lagoon in Comino
About 12000 BC the land bridge connecting this island and Gozo to Sicily was submerged when the glaciers from that period began to melt.
Blue Lagoon from Space
The Blue Lagoon can be seen in this GE Sat image on the island
of Camino situated between Gozo (upper) and Malta (Lower)
The Blue Lagoon on the Island of Camino
Close-in Shot from Google Earth
...And yes, it can get crowded there especially on weekends and holidays
It is claimed to be the most beautiful spot in all of Malta
Scenes from the Blue Lagoon or what we call Lumpy Bay
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The Throngs of Tourist Brought over to Camino by Tour Operators created very crowded conditions and the tour boat operators made the harbor undomfortably rolly with their excessive speed.
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In this picture you can see the speed and the resulting wake created by the tour operators. They never cut their speed until they reached the dock.
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In the background you can see the wathc tower overlooking the Blue Lagoon and looking westward out to sea.
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Gozo - The Island Home of the Goddess Calypso
Homer in his epic poem, The Odyssey, speaks of a place called Ogygia. Ogygia is where Ulysees was shipwrecked and held captive by the Goddess Calypso for seven years until Zeus freed him from her spell. Ask a Gozitan about this and they will declare that Gozo is Ogygia. Calypso is thought to have lived in a cave above Ramla Beach (See pictures below.) Gozo is only 14 km by 7 km with a population of 23,000. From what we could see, a large portion of this population is made up of returning ex-pats from the US, Canada and Australia It has the oldest temple buildings dating back to 3600 BC with archaeological finds dating as far back as 5000 BC.
The Church in Mgarr - The Island of Comino is in the Background
The Island of Gozo, Camino is to the Lower Right
The upper left circle is Mgarr Marina on Gozo where we spent a few nights and the lower right circle is the Blue Lagoon or what I like to call Bumpy Bay.
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It's the people you meet that makes cruising so great!
While in Gozo, we met a local Gozotian, Peter, who had spent much of his professional life in New York. He loves the USA & he befriended us. He took us for tours of the island showing us his favorite places that most visitors would never see. He took us to his home and introduced us to his wife. We were very fortunate to meet him and he singularly made our stay in Gozo a very memorable one.
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AIS Reports a Dangerous Encounter!
While we were getting ready to leave Mgarr Marina in Gozo, I noticed that the AIS system was reporting
another vessel (This time the ferry that travels between Gozo and Malta) was dangerously close to
Dakare. Dakare can be seen as the green vessel, roughly in the middle of the chart above while the
ferry boat can be seen just below it with its name (Malita) in yellow. Stats below the graphic report that
the ferry was 245 yards away. Fortunately, both Dakare and the ferry were in their respective slips doing zero knots.
A little overkill for this situation. The thing that struck me most though was how accurate both ships positions were being reported by their respective GPS systems (Note that the position of the ferry boat was recieved by Dakare's AIS using the GPS coordinates originating from the ferry boat's GPS system.) Ya gotta love the technology!
Some Scenes from Gozo
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Dakare in her slip
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Church - Xewkija Rotonda
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Street Decorations for Church Feast
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Xewkija Rotonda, 3rd Largest Dome in Europe
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Mgarr Marina with Dakare on Left
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Fishermen's boats & Ferry
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Race Horese are taken to the Marina and -
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Exercised, Later They are Groomed
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Bells in the Belfry of Xewkija Rotonda
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Gozo Coastline
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Ggantija Temples - Dating from 3500BC
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Ramla Bay Beach
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Zerka Window (Azure Window)
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Fungus Rock - Tiny harbor to the left
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Local Watering Hole - Glen Eagles
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The inside of Glen Eagles
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Views of the Citadel and the Cathedral in Victoria
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Inlade stonework on the floor of the cathedral marking the graves of rich and famous Gozitanians
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Our Last Night in Gozo, with Peter, in Xaghra
Preparations for the feast of Our Lady of Victories - One Week after our Departure
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Enjoying the evening with Peter and the locals at a sidewalk bar across from the chuch
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Isolde Lampedusa (Italy)
Lying half way between Malta and Monastir, Tunisia, Isolde Lampedusa is the southern most point of all of Europe in the Med. A convenient half way stop, it lies as a full day's journey between these 2 locations. It has been included on the Malta page rather than the Italy page since it fits here logically based upon our route.
Isolde Lampedusa (Italy)
