Still in Malta
Posted at 10:49 PM, May. 7, 2007
Well we are still in Malta and trying to resolve a few problems before we leave. Weather wise we are finding clear, sunny and warm days to the mid 20’s but for the last few days we have had firstly 2 days of 25/30 knots SE’ly then followed immediately by 3 days of up to 40 knots. Pretty noisy on the marina!
The last Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Grand Harbour was closed for most of those days for the equivalent of a F1 power boat racing series so we probably were not going to go anywhere in a hurray anyway!
We have hired a rental car for a few days (very cheap but you want to see the car!) and spent Sunday driving around the southern part of Malta including to Marsaskla a village where Pam and I had dinner before we left Malta last November and then on to Marsaxlokk where the Sunday market was in full flight – a bit of shopping for the girls. The photo below is taken from the market looking out across the fishing fleet! A busy bustling village. The roads leave a lot to be desired once you are off the two or three mains roads. Tar sealing seems to be a function that never gets renewed and the countryside is dotted with villages every few miles. From the deep south we headed cross country and up the NW coast to visit the Blue Grotto – but found because of the high winds it was closed as the boats could not access it. We then headed up to an area north of Valletta called St Julian’s Bay that is clearly the up market tourist place on Malta surrounded by hotels such as the Hilton etc. We managed to get a park and found a reasonably priced fish restaurant for dinner and a drink ( Rafaels at St Julian’s Bay).
Pam and Alice at Marsaxlokk - Malta
The boat has come together well and we are keen to get away. The time delays here have resulted in us abandoning the planned trip to Tunisia until another year, as we need to get across to at least southern Italy or at worst case Siracusa on Sicily to meet up with Dean and Shell who join us next Monday (14Th May) for 10 days or so and hopefully a passage up the Italian east coast and across to Croatia.
The major remaining problem (apart from a few smaller isues) to sort on the boat relates to the hot water cylinder which is working fine on shore power but is currently disconnected from the heat exchanger. I found the engine compartment full of coolant coloured water (like about 20 buckets full) that obviously came from the heat exchanger. Further investigation resulted in the cause being a pressure leak from the top of the header tank for the heat exchanger – turn off the water pump no more leaks. That in turn got itself diagnosed as a hole in the piping that circulates inside the cylinder and enables fresh water to be pumped into the heat exchanger. The good news was that I initially thought we may have a blown head gasket although the engine was sounding fine. It seems that the whole cylinder will have to be replaced (a 40 litre Isotemp Basic from Italy) and a well regarded brand with a two year warranty which we are inside. That is then compounded by a change in agents in Malta so I fired off an email to Isotemp in Italy and got a reply within about 3 hours (big surpise for Italy) so will hopefully make some more progress tomorrow. The bad news is that it seems that a replacement cylinder is not in Malta and will have to be flown in. How many days that will take is the current 64 million dollar question. The marine infrastructure is very good in Malta so it makes sense for us to get resolved here before we leave.
The Maltese Falcon is not in port but that is undoubtedly overshadowed by the arrival of the largest privately owned motoryacht in the world – owned by the Russian guy who owns the Chelsea Football Club in the UK. It is huge and but does look really great though. There is also a 94 foot Wally – dark blue hull, no lines and the deck and comings all in teak. Looks fabulous and we got as far as standing on the after deck discussing with the sailing master the design of the stern door – seems that the odd Wally door has leaked in years gone by.
Malta is buzzing with cruise ships and at least two every day call in for an overnight or 12 hours or so! And these are decent sized ships – so must be the aged Americans doing their tours.
Otherwise all is well on board and looking forward to moving on.
Cheers
Keith