We left harbour at 1530 and slowly made our way up to Comino, the smallest of the 3 islands that comprise the Maltese archipelago. As soon as we were out of Grand Harbour I put up the genoa and switched off the engine, to me this is the beauty of a sailing boat, you can move in complete harmony with the sea and the wind without that annoying engine noise. However the slow movement of the boat together with the swell made Danica slightly seasick so i had to put on the engine and motor the rest of the way.
Arriving at Comino is always pleasant, the Blue Lagoon with its crystal turquoise colour is breath taking and immediately puts you into 'relaxing mode'. We dropped anchor and noticed Aaron a friend of mine who i met while doing the Yacht Masters qualification over the winter. We immediately made plans for him to come aboard and eat dinner with us, rabbit stock pot, an ideal recipe for the boat since it basically involves boiling a chopped rabbit together with onions, celery, carrots and loads of rock salt and pepper. First night out and we immediately settled into the relaxing mode that is what boating is really about. Two bottles of wine and a lovely sunset brought sleep on quickly and off we went to sleep at around 2300.
In our first posting Danica mentioned our first charter which was a half-day trip around the Grand Harbour and up to Comino with a film crew who were shooting footage for an advert for a chain of time share resorts.
It all started with the crew filming these two 'models' (hotel employees) in cliche poses with the girl in the guys' arms on deck and just circling the boat into position to get the best back-drop for the picture. After an hour of this it was decided to head to Comino...... I forgot to mention that the wind was a strong north-west Force 5 which is no less than 25 knots of wind. Now the boat is built to withstand much more than that, however people are not. In fact after a few minutes we had the inevitable casualty, the female model, who started getting slightly pale and asked for some seasickness pills. Well they seemed to work as she just sat down at the stern and was silent all the way to Comino. The trip, which is normally an hour and a half took us two and a half hours with a few big waves and some sea spray hitting us, however it went well and we all survived the experience arriving in Blue Lagoon at around 1230.
The crew immediately went to work filming the scenery but something seemed to change in their attitude towards the 'models', in fact the more time passed the more they seemed to take shots of the 'skipper' and the boat. They asked to be dropped off on land and shot some footage of the bay and the boat from the rocks. On returning the strangest thing happened when the director asked if i minded being filmed and saying a couple of lines!!!! I agreed so as not to ruin the good feeling there was on board and also since they were already paying me but what was strange was that they asked the 'models' to go below and filmed me instead! To be honest after a couple of minutes i was expecting one of them to shout 'you're on reality hell' and i have to admit that there were a couple of awkward moments when they asked me to say a few words and move the wheel. In fact i burst out laughing twice to the annoyance of the Director, but at the end he was happy with what he got.
We got back to harbour at 1700, 4 hours longer than what was planned and i had to ask for payment since the original agreement was for half a day. The producer only had the agreed fee so we agreed to barter the extra 4 hours for some of the footage that i can put on our website www.dominacharters.com. I think this was a fair deal, especially since i was already happy that we got our first bit of work. Now we will see if i actually get any of the footage and photos, but to be honest i am just happy that all went well, the boat handled itself very well in such strong winds and we made it back without any particular incident.
Back to our Easter weekend: Friday turned out to be a beautiful day with a westerly wind force 3 to 4 bringing a bit of a breeze into the lagoon. Danica's parents (also company directors) asked us to take them and some friends for a spin on Domina which we obviously did. We picked them up from Mgarr harbour Gozo after they had done their 7 church visits. They came with 3 'ricotta and broadbean pies' (Good Friday is a fasting day for Catholics), two pizzas and some wine. Off we went and after assessing the wind situation it was decided to go to a fantastic bay called Mgarr ix-xini, a narrow inlet that leads onto a tiny sandy beach and is surrounded by high rock formations. It was the perfect location for lunch and thats what we did, opened some wine and ate and chatted. Being spring, in the background we could clearly hear the Merill (rock thrush) our National bird.
After a sail around Comino we dropped everyone off back in Mgarr and decided to make our way to Mellieha since the wind picked up slightly. This bay is very well protected from the north west wind and so we anchored there. Once the sun was setting i noticed that there weren't many lights around and sure enough on the radio news it said that Malta had suffered a total power cut, the second in 11 days. We at least had fully charged batteries but all those i spoke to over the phone are not at all happy about this after the ridiculous prices being charged for Water and Electricity and to top it all diesel and other fuel was increased only 2 days before.
Saturday morning was a calm one, we got up at around 830, which is quite late on board a boat, however it seems like we both needed it. We headed immediately to Blue Lagoon where once again we met Aaron and his lovely dog Bonny who he takes walking on Comino twice a day. We decided to do some exploring and went onto Kemunett (an even smaller island) which is really a rock. The landscape is very rough with lots of wild thyme and other short plants, small white flowers and purple flowers and lots of small rocks that make walking a bit uncomfortable, however the views make the trek worthwhile. Once we got to the top of the island there is a sheer cliff and while moving close to it a magnificent sight appeared in front of us. From just under the ledge a flock of around 11 night herons flew out obviously startled by our presence, beautiful birds so gracefully but yet so big. Now i am not against hunting of game birds, just like i am not against catching fish for personal consumption, but how someone can shoot at such a majestic bird is beyond my understanding.
Easter Sunday is quite important for Maltese families and Danica's family have always spent it in Gozo,with Easter Sunday lunch at 'Kartell' restaurant which is right by the sea in Marsalforn bay. Not to break this tradition and also since the wind was favorable (it changed to south east) we decided to go up to Marsalforn and anchor there for lunch, take the dinghy and cross over to the restaurant. It was nice and sunny but unfortunately our table was in the shade and it was cold during lunch, which notwithstanding was excellent.
The final part of our weekend was a 3 hour 15 minute sail down to Grand Harbour sailing into 25 knots of southeasterly. Again i was pleasantly impressed with how well the boat took the waves so even though it was not the most comfortable ride, it makes me happy to know that we can handle some serious weather on Domina. Aaron on the other-hand left Comino (which is an hour closer to Malta) at 1100 on Sunday and arrived at 1700 in the Marina, six hours is quite a trip in those conditions, but we both made it back safe and thats what counts after all.
Next weekend i'm off to the UK for the National Rugby Team's training camp then on to Holland for a game and back to Malta to prepare for another match against Latvia. Will post something when back, no doubt there will be some stories seeing as we will be a group of 27 rugby mad guys in Amsterdam!!!
