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Blog 27I began writing this at sea with a bit of a sad and heavy heart en route from Greece to Malta after what felt like a short visit, cruising with our friends on Callish of Clyde. We were joined at the hip (or amidships) for a few weeks (with a break in the middle while Callish had a holiday with their cousins, and we went off to explore the inland sea), and thouroughly enjoyed it. Ellen and Anna had a ball with Callum and Hamish, and John and I enjoyed the company too. It was a bit of a wrench to leave them behind, and we all moped for a few days. The trip from Zakinthos to Malta was our longest passage so far and we enjoyed it mostly. Night watches were busy with lots of ships, amazing starry skies, and as well as some shooting stars we both saw some metoers (or something similar!) leaving green trails across the sky. John had dolphins on one of his watches,but less wind in general, and I had better wind on my watches (more sailing - nothing to do with too many sprouts or anything).We arrived in Valletta with nothing major broken and having sailed about 70percent of the way.Valletta, Malta is a beautiful old Arabic looking town, surrounded by monstrous high rise housing. We enjoyed a day shopping (English book shop - wehay) and looking around although the heat (seemed even hotter than Greece) was very hard work. After cleaning the boat thoroughly, and a couple of good long paddling pool plays we left the marina and headed off to see some of Maltas anchorages.The most striking thing about Malta is the number and size of motor boats zipping up and down the short coast, as well as tripper boats, jet skis and the odd yacht. The anchorage we found was incredibly busy, although it did quieten down at night, and the next anchorage we tried - the blue laggon - was so busy it was like being in central London! We stopped there only for lunch and then headed to Gozo (the smaller island by Malta) where we got a marina berth for the night. On first impressions we like Gozo much more than Malta - it has a more relaxed feeling to it and no high rise apartment blocks. The weather forecast for heading northwest looks awful - to get to the Balearics we will have to tack or wait for no wind at all and motor at this rate. Hopefully the next weather forecast will look different!We are getting used to being on our own again, although we are all looking forward to seeing Sarah James Ben and Lizzie in September (even if they are arriving at 4am!!)
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