08 April 2015; Gozo, West of Malta.

It did not look good during the night. Around 3 am. a heavy rain squall hit the ship and a ferocious wind blew around it, but it passed and in the morning it was back to the normal – windy day- as yesterday. Now it would all depend on it if the lee was good enough as the wind did continue to blow from the right direction, straight over land providing the maximum lee possible.

It turned out it was enough. There was still 20 to 25 knots blowing but as the ship could anchor close enough to the shore the wind could not create enough waves and the swell which curved around the island was not that high. We were in business. It was going to be a windy day with a wobbly tender ride but we were there. In the past the Prinsendam had had to cancel calling at Gozo several times but this time we were lucky.  Everybody could go ashore to see Gozo while the sun was shining and temperatures hovered around the 16oC / 61oF. Not warm but perfect for sightseeing.

Because there is not much lee around Gozo it is very hard to call at Gozo with a cruise ship. Unless you fit inside the port but then you have to be the same size or smaller than the ferries and they are not very big to start with. The sides of the island are quite steep and the wind not only blows over the island, the steep cliffs can also guide that same wind around the island if it has enough momentum to start with. Today with a wind force 4 to 5 it was not too bad and we could stay. Otherwise the only solution is to go to Valetta and to run a tour from there and use those ferries. We could count ourselves very lucky.

The red “bean” on the chart screen are all the positions plotted during the day while the ship moved to and fro behind the anchor chain.

Because of the strong winds the Prinsendam behaved like a restless horse on a long tether. The captain had run out 8 lengths (out of a maximum of 11) of anchor chain and thus with over 200 meters of chain on the sea bottom we were safely at anchor. But while the weight prevented the anchor from dragging, it gave enough room for having the ship yawn behind it considerably. So for the duration of our call, both the cabins on the portside and those on the starboard side got a very good view of Gozo harbor while the Prinsendam swing like a pendulum behind the anchor chain.

Churches are always handy. Here we have one which is positioned perfectly to guide the tender safely into the port.

I did not go ashore as I had a ships articles review to do but what stands out in my mind from the last visit there was the number of churches for such a small island and the wild nature on the west side. Wikipedia just taught me that there are 46 of those churches scattered around the island and that for a population of 37,000 is quite a high per diem. Lots of things to see if you are into church buildings.

Most of our guests went on tour but several went for the hop on – hop off Bus that marvellous invention has also reached Gozo. I am a big fan of it and luckily they can be found in more and more ports and towns.  It works much better than haggling with a local cab driver and you have a much better view. There is talk about building a bridge between Gozo and Malta or maybe even a tunnel but it will be an expensive affair and there will be a big political battle to see if the money is worth it and if the Government can afford it. Malta is not that big, that is has surplus billions lying around to play with.

Because Gozo is so close to Valetta on Malta we are having two ports calls in one day. As soon as the last tender was back and the anchor was raised, we sailed between Gozo and the West point of Malta to the North East and then approached Valletta from the North. This port has been designated one of our overnight ports and that gives the option to do a barbeque on deck. Theme this time is Mongolian night.

We sailed into the port just before sunset. That is not the best time as the setting sun only lights up the buildings to the East near the dry-dock area. In the morning with the sun in the East, the ship sails with the sun and then the higher part of Valletta with all the fortifications form an impressive sight to behold.

Still sailing into Valetta still beats a large number of other ports, where there is simply………….. nothing to see. Thus we will be here until tomorrow evening and the weather looks good. Little change, in other words, perfect sightseeing weather.