Crystal Bay, Comino Island

We had enjoyed relaxing in San Niklaw Bay and had partly used the time to catch up with e-mails for home admin and to write up some of the blog entries for our time so far in Malta. But with the wind shifting the bay was no longer the perfect, sheltered anchorage and so we fired up the engine and motored the short distance around to the other side of Comino Island.

The quiet side of the Blue Lagoon   

We snuck between 2 large boulders and dropped our anchor in the quiet side of the Blue Lagoon. Even in the short time that we had been in Malta we could see that the Blue Lagoon was getting progressively busier as summer ‘proper’ approached. But, amazingly, we had the quiet southern side all to ourselves. Perfect for lazing, swimming and reading.

At around half past five Dinah arrived with Barry and Lily on board and we agreed that we’d move around to the ‘caves and arches’ bay for the night. We also discovered that the ‘caves and arches’ bay is actually called Crystal Bay.

With both yachts securely anchored (Barry snorkelled to check both anchors were well dug in) we joined Barry and Lily on board Dinah for drinks.

Lily, Barry and Catherine’s sailing cat   

Lily normally guards Barry and Catherine’s apartment but at the weekend, and on holidays, she joins them on board Dinah. Slightly suspicious of the 2 new people on board Dinah, Lily kept a close eye on us to make sure that we didn’t cause any trouble. She seemed perfectly at home patrolling the decks and generally keeping watch, even hanging over the transom to peer at fish and passing boats. As a young cat she had jumped overboard once, proved that she could swim very well, but subsequently appears to have decided that life as a ship's cat is much better if you stay out of the sea.

Sunset in Crystal Bay on board Dinah   

Catherine was busy with a works do and so the plan was to pick her up at the northern point of Malta in the morning. She missed a very convivial evening with great company and a fab sunset over Gozo.

In the morning, the tripper boats started to arrive quite early to show the punters the caves. The large Hornblower tripper boat manoeuvred impressively right into the entrance of the larger cave.

The tripper boat with most of the population of Sark on board   

Just before lunch, Barry had to depart to rendezvous with Catherine who was cycling to a pier near the ferry terminal from which she could be picked up. We also started to get ready to leave because we had plans for a different anchorage for lunch. At that point, a gulet-style tripper boat dropped anchor beside us and there was much interest in BV from the guests on board. It turns out that they were all from the small island of Sark, visiting Malta en-mass for a wedding. Sometimes it seems like the world is very small! Now, Sark is not a big island and they joked that with all of them in Malta there was no one left on Sark; not far from the truth! We chatted to them, took photographs and then Nicky paddled our dinghy around with their ‘official photographer’ so that she could get some photos of the caves and the wedding party on the tripper boat. Good deeds done, we upped anchor and headed towards a bay on the north-western side of Malta; Anchor Bay.

Crystal Bay, Comino, Malta