Mai Tai Returns to North Africa

As much as we loved our time in Montenegro, we finally checked out to begin our sail south towards Malta and eventually on to Monastir, in Tunisia where we will stay for the winter. Checking out of Montenegro at Port Zelenika was remarkably quick and easy, so we were soon on our way to explore more of the Ionian Sea. With perfect sailing conditions, we set sail for Corfu about 200nms away, but, as usual, the predicted winds soon died, leaving us with a nasty choppy sea. So, we changed course towards Vlore, in Albania, to spend the night there.
Between Vlore and the main island of Corfu, lie a couple of small islands, just a day’s easy sail away. Erikousa, a small island with a population of just 300, looked like a perfect spot for a stopover.

What a delight to drop our anchor in a beautiful big bay, crystal clear waters, sandy bottom, with just half a dozen other boats already at anchor, and no huge super yachts, with huge tenders and jet skis to disturb the peace and quiet. The visit ashore, beyond the small local marina and ferry dock, showed us a few local stores, a wee church, and a windmill. It was easy to spend a couple of days here before continuing on to Corfu.

Arriving in Corfu we headed for an anchorage right in front of the famous old fort. It is always a spectacle at night and we never tire of seeing it, along with dozens of charter boats and visiting super yachts.

We also never tire of taking the short cut through the old moat to our dinghy dock through to the other side.

Right opposite our anchorage is an old homestead called Mon Repos, nestled in a park like forest of huge trees. Mon Repos is the former Royal summer residence for the Greek royal family, and it is where the late Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh was born in 1921. It is now a museum and I just adored wandering through the forest listening to the crickets and the birds.

Further south on Corfu Island, is Petriti, a small quaint fishing village. We spent a few days anchored here, enjoying the peace and quiet and watching the fishing boats coming and going.

It is normal in the Med, to always be waiting for a weather window to allow us to move on. The winds are either non-existent, blowing a gale, or doing the exact opposite of what has been predicted. Our next stop from here is Preveza, so when the winds came up that would allow us to sail all the way to the harbour entrance, we quickly lifted the anchor and set off. We estimated our arrival would be around sundown, but since we had already been to Preveza and had an existing track on our navigation system, we were not worried about arriving in the dark.
Night arrivals in populated areas are always difficult, due to the array of lights along the shoreline. It is usually difficult to determine which are shore based lights and which are navigation lights and anchor lights on other boats in the anchorage. We did end up arriving after dark, though we were able to find a spot to get the anchor down.

However, no sooner had we turned off the engine, than a fisherman came up to us, screaming that we had just dropped our anchor on his fishing net. Apparently, at night the fishermen lay nets around the moored boats!!! After 63 miles and arriving in the dark, we were certainly not keen to lift our anchor now at 2230hrs. The fisherman would not leave us alone and we tried to understand his predicament. We were tired, but we really had no choice. When we lifted the anchor, sure enough we had snagged his net, and this time we went far out into the bay and tried again. We slept like babies, and no-one came to bother us,

We enjoy Preveza and there are always other cruisers to catch up with and we can do laundry and go shopping. Everything is so convenient here. But we also love to head up to Vonitsa, which is a lovely village about 8 nms further up the Ambracian Gulf, with an impressive Venetian Fort overlooking the town and anchorage. We spent a good week here with friends.

The view from the top of the fort overlooks a large valley filled with gardens, orchards and a large inlet, a haven for native sea birds and fish life.

Back in Preveza, we are now looking for another weather window, studying the weather patterns on different weather programs. Our next destination on the way to Malta, is Syracusa, in Sicily, 300nms away. This should be a 2 and half day’s sail away.
By 0830, we were motoring down the 4nm channel before setting sail for Syracusa, but we soon found that our auto pilot was not functioning. With a 3-day trip ahead of us, we made the decision to turn back to see if Lane could diagnose the problem and fix it. So, back we go up the channel, find another anchorage, without snagging another fishing net, and Lane disappears into the lazarette to check the fuses and wiring. He makes a few adjustments, but our old trusty Autopilot, installed 32 years ago, that has tirelessly taken us over thousands of nautical miles, is not playing ball.

We realised that we would not be able to resolve this problem here in Preveza, so we would have to head off without it. Fortunately, we do have a wind vane steering system, which allows the wind to steer the boat, no autopilot needed! However, we need a steady wind to rely on the wind vane to take us the 300nms to Syracusa. Steady wind?? This is the Mediterranean!! So, we were prepared to take it in turns to hand steer, if that’s what it took.

In the end, we got perfect sailing conditions to use the wind vane to steer for the first 28 hrs, and from then we had to motor sail, hand steering in 2 hr watches for the next 28hrs. Steering the old-fashioned way, using our compass, is very tiring. At least it was calm and warm. It was 1600 hrs when we dropped anchor in Syracusa next to some good friends whom we had known since our days in Turkey.

We had visited Syracusa in the Spring on our way north and did not want to check in to Italy again, so we did not go ashore this time and set sail the next day for Malta. We weighed anchor, hoisted our sails, then we couldn’t have asked for more favourable conditions to sail right through the night, steering with our wind vane all the way to the stunning old city of Valetta, in Grand Harbour, Malta, to an anchorage in Rinella Creek.

Making sure the wind vane keeps us on a steady course.

Sailing into Grand harbour, past the city of Valletta, is such an impressive sight. We decided to head for an anchorage on the southern side of the harbour, called Rinella Creek. A few other boats were already at anchor there and we soon made ourselves known to a boat in the anchorage, flying a NZ flag. We got chatting and realised we had already met at the Dunedin Yacht Club, in New Zealand, in 2008. Such is this cruising life and the people we meet along the way.
There were also other boats flying British, New Zealand, Australian and American flags, so we all ended up having a lot of fun together during our time in Malta.

Then, there were the ladies days away, shopping, coffees, haircuts along with a lot of chatter and laughter.

A few museums to visit along the way. This Palace Armoury was huge and so impressive.

Malta is a dream destination for cruisers from all over the world, as, apart from its fascinating and turbulent history dating back centuries, and as recently as WW2, there are dozens of safe anchorages, marinas, and an impressive choice of marine stores and services. Fashion stores, beauty shops and well stocked supermarkets plus a very efficient public transport service to take you anywhere you want to go.

August is a month of festivities with traditional rowing boat races, street parties, and music. Also, the Maltese are famous for their fireworks, which are all hand-made on the island. During the month of August loud fireworks are heard going off all through the day, then, at night we are entertained with impressive displays lighting up the skies. Some were set off very close to where we were moored.

Lane and I took a bus trip across the island, to Mdina, a charming old walled city, once the capital of Malta until the great siege in the 1500s, when the Turks threatened to invade Malta. This is when the Grand Knight Jean de Vallette built a walled city at the entrance to the Grand Harbour and moved the capital here. This way the Maltese Knights were able to defend the city now known as Valletta.

No cars are allowed inside the walled city, so horse drawn taxis are used.

In Rabat, the town next door to Mdina, are the old St Pauls Catacombs, a huge underground cluster of graves which served as a burial ground from Punic, Roman and Byzantine times. It was hard to see it all in less than 2 hrs.

The township of Rabat was colourful and delightful, great restaurants and not too crowded.

We have made good friends here in Malta, moored in Sliema, but soon we must move on. Some we will see again in Tunisia. Others, we wont forget and who knows where our next encounter will be?

Mai Tai repairs. We have already booked a marina berth in Tunisia for the winter, as they offer very reasonable rates, so we will head back there to do all the storm damage repairs needed on Mai Tai. Since Tunisia doesn’t stock everything we will need, Lane found a company in Malta that was able to supply absolutely everything that was on his extensive list. Litres of paint, fibreglass repair materials, sheets of marine ply, sheets of closed cell foam, and all the tools and protective gear that would be needed. The company, Dock Shop, delivered it all down to our dinghy dock in town, then we had fun and games fitting all that on board, especially the sheets of plywood, which had to be cut into more manageable pieces.

It would be easy to stay here in Malta, but Lane was looking at all the work he needed to do on Mai Tai, so after nearly one month we set sail to Monastir, Tunisia, 190 nms away. We had good calm conditions for the passage which broke down to 14 hrs of perfect sailing conditions using the wind vane, and 23hrs of motor sailing and hand steering.

We arrived at night, tied up to the fuel dock as instructed by the Coastguard, completed our customs clearance, then crashed to bed around 0200. We were exhausted!
We were awoken by a violent storm, with thunder and lightning. Not again, we thought. But it was soon over, we were safe, and later we were taken to our mooring slip in the marina.

Welcome to Monastir.
Now begins the enormous job of repairing Mai Tai. And that will be for our next blog.