270 miles into Malta we stumbled across an island. It even had a lighthouse on top and was fairly big. Double checked the paper and electronic charts and no mention of it. Can it be possible that there is an uncharted island in the middle of the Mediterranean ? Still couldn't believe it, once more checked in Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes and no mention of it.

26th May

With prevailing westerly winds and current, heading West in the Med is not much fun. The engine has been heavily used and tested, the only way to progress westward. The good news is that the engine is behaving well, the bad news is that if we get in before running out of fuel ,it will be pure luck. As we approach Malta the traffic of cargo ships is intensifying, but the ships are considerate, unlike in other parts of the world ,where at places we have been almost run over.

27th May

14 miles out of Malta the westerly winds straightened to 20 knots, why can we have for once an easy passage? Bashing against rough seas stirred all the dirt in the almost empty fuel tank,  now we are worried that it will block the filters, which would stop the engine working. So sails came out and we tacked until the entrance of Marsamxett  Bay. Somehow the engine worked all the way to the  fuel barge and we got the so needed diesel. The staff from the barge told us that we will be in big trouble for stopping prior to checking in. But who cares, we need fuel. After that we were directed to Grand Harbour for checking in. Took us some time to find out that the only way to check in is via a marina acting as an agent, but when we found out the price of Grand Harbour Marina we almost collapsed. Still getting used with European prices. No mention from customs of stopping before clearing in.

Valetta is magnificent, bearing in mind that the city got heavily bombarded by neighboring Italy and then the Germans in 1941, the city still has a lot of old buildings, and what it was rebuilt ,blends in well making a very charming place. During WWII the Maltese were reduced to living in rubles and near starvation until an oil tanker broke through the blitz bringing much needed oil to the island. The Maltese were collectively awarded the George Cross for their bravery.

28th May

Suffering from severe hangover. After 3 years we met up with Kai. He started with us the circumnavigation, from UK to Spain. Now he joined us to finish the trip, all the way until Gibraltar. It was 3 years of catching up, that somehow included also the drinks. 

Looking at the weather Friday, tomorrow, is a good day to leave to Spain. Despite the hangover, we did some provisioning and then it was an early night to leave the following day.

30th May

What started as a nice trip with light winds gradually changed approaching the narrow passage between Sicily  and Tunisia. It is only 60 miles wide and depths go from 2000 metres to 100 very quickly. It got quite rough at night with running seas and 25 knots of winds, but at least it was coming from behind. Once through Skerri Channel it all settled a bit, but it was a sleepless night.

31st May

Another sleepless night, this time thunderstorms wide as 10 miles long as it appeared in the radar. The lightening was something we haven't seen before. The whole sky lit up in a flash, then very heavy rain and an abrupt wind shift of 180 degrees.  Med sailing hasn't been fun at all. After the wind shift the seas settled a little and we were motoring against light headwinds. The barometer dropped almost 5 bars, so we knew we are in for some more bad weather. 

01st June

As morning came up a dark cloud approached from ahead, I only thought that it will bring more rain. I was wrong, from nowhere like if someone had switched the lights on the wind picked up to 35 knots and pretty horrible seas.  It was time to bail out, all of us tired and the only course we could steer was to Sardinia, unfortunately it was 35 miles away, another 6 hours of quite rough conditions. Settled into a nice secluded bay in Teulada, South Sardinia.

02nd June