San Niklaw Bay, Comino Island

The afternoon sea breeze sent a small swell into Dwejra, which the circular shape of the bay reflected around making BV roll gently. If the wind got up just a small amount more, as it was expected to, it might become an uncomfortable anchorage and so we decided to move to a better one.

Site of the former Azure Window which collapsed on 9 March this year   

The Azure Window as it was (picture from the internet)    

We left Dwejra at 1620 on Wednesday 24 May and turned north to take a look at the site of the famous Azure Window. This dramatically collapsed on 9 March this year during a storm. The surprise was that it wasn’t just the arch which collapsed but also the whole of the stack as well. Despite it having completely disappeared, there were still day tripper boats showing tourists where the arch once was and apparently it is now an even better dive site with huge boulders from the arch and stack on the seabed. It’s just a shame that we didn’t manage to see it before it collapsed.

Mgarr Ix-Xini   

We planned to find a suitable anchorage on the island of Comino but also took a look into Mgarr Ix-Xini on the way past. This very narrow inlet sits a couple of miles west of Mgarr on Gozo. We nosed in carefully and reckoned that we could get about half way along the inlet before it got too shallow for us. By this stage the inlet was only a little wider than BV is long and so Nicky did a careful bit of manoeuvring to turn us around in our own boat length. We could have anchored in the outer part of the inlet and run a line ashore but decided that we’d probably be more comfortable in one of the anchorages on Comino.

The quiet side of the Blue Lagoon   

The Blue Lagoon was a good option for the forecast wind but it was already very full of anchored yachts and we’d also been there before. So, we took a look at the more enclosed part of the bay on the other side of the swimming area. We had that area almost to ourselves but it was clear that a little swell was already getting into the anchorage and it would only get worse.

San Niklaw Bay   

Aiming to find the quietest and most sheltered anchorage to ensure the best night’s sleep we finally settled on San Niklaw Bay. We dropped the anchor there at 1845 and knew instantly that we’d made the right decision. The hotel had lots of guests but no loud music, we had perfect shelter with no swell making its way into the bay, and we were the only yacht anchored there. Perfect!

In the morning we swam in the clear turquoise waters and admired BV’s beautifully clean hull [Ed: thanks to someone’s hard work scrubbing in Dwejra, which the author should have mentioned in that post!].  The swimming in San Niklaw Bay is just as good as in the Blue Lagoon and there much less risk of being run over by a tripper boat!

Moving out of the way for the resupply vessel   

We stayed 2 nights in San Niklaw Bay: a surprisingly good internet connection meant that we could even clear a backlog of computer-based admin almost as good as being at home and better views too! The only minor disruption was when a police boat asked us to move for a short while whilst the resupply vessel dropped off some vehicles on the quay beside the hotel. The whole process took about 2 hours. Initially we thought that the vessel would move after the vehicles had been dropped off but when nothing happened we re-anchored and then moved clear again when the empty vehicles eventually came back and drove back onto the resupply vessel. It was a minor disruption and on the plus side ensured that we had lots of hot water for showers and it helped to recharge the batteries; so, quite useful really.

By Friday afternoon the wind had started to move around to the ENE so that meant that San Niklaw Bay was becoming more exposed. It was time to move on again, but not far.

San Niklaw Bay on Comino Island, Malta