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“Not really a cruising ground but useful as a wintering stop” is how the cruising guide described Malta.

Yet if you stop and speak to any of the thousands of Maltese sailors and boater they will wistfully tell you about several of their beautiful bays and beaches.

Nott wanting to go too far afield until we got back into the swing of cruising life and got to know the boat we decided to make a plan to cruise around Malta.

In truth the time on the hard had gone incredibly quickly. We started with a very long job list in a dusty boatyard in the midst of  the oppressive July heat. I would like to say everything on the list got done, but we barely made a good start on the top third and then when our Australian registration arrived we had reached the point where I declared enough and abruptly put her into the water.

While launching the boat we were fortunate that my cousin Joanne and her family had decided to spend their summer holidays in Malta with us so that we had a great group of us to ‘christen’ Blue Dancer with a bit of champagne! It was also great to catchup, use the pool in their apartment complex to cool off and to have some great dinners together.

While its a it is true that Malta is a fairly small archpilegeo, there are actually several beautiful bays and anchorages with everything from (relative) wilderness with amazing clear blue water to stunning spots to anchor in the middle of the city of Valletta.

We spent a wistful week just in San Niklaw Bay  anchored off the Comino Hotel swimming, cooking and enjoying a drink sat on the hotel deck in what can only be described as a quintessential Mediterranean postcard.

It was here however that we had our first hiccup with a faulty starter motor as well as a few electrical issues.  As we decided we were ready to sail for Sicily, instead it was back to Roland Marina in Malta for a replacement!

While frustrated by the timing and delay,  it turned out it was also a good opportunity to finish a few other jobs and to play tourist for a few days. Special mention goes to two new friends, Jacques from JDV Boat Services and Petar from Medcomm for going over and above in helping us getting moving again. Sometimes a chance meeting in an unforeseen circumstance is what makes cruising fun and oh so different from package holidays!

Eventually after much longer in Malta than we ever intended, ‘cruising’ in an area one is not mean’t to cruise……..we headed over to Gozo and then finally onward to Sicily!

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I have finally gotten around to putting up another video. Boat shopping in the Med. Check it out!

So these days we are enjoying trying our hand at making a couple of videos, taking quick photos as we travel and putting updates out on our socials.  Whether we stick too it or not I guess time will tell!

Anyway I will try and update our boat shopping adventures as frequently as I can over on our Instagram. www.instagram.com/slow.travelling/

And another video coming soon!

After only a few weeks on the market we have sold our boat Iolanthe. We wish the new owner the best of success with her, she is a good solid boat capable of taking him wherever he may care to go.

Selling a boat, a good boat though is a bitterweet thing.

We are now searching for our next boat – which is exciting. We are also very happy we sold Iolanthe in good condition, for a price we were happy with and quite quickly.  Everything one could hope for.

Yet as we pack up boxes of boat belongings we are happy-sad. We remembered the good times we have had and the places we have been. We remember Sophie starting to take her first steps in the saloon, we remember her holding on in the cockpit as we beat into 30 knots coming into Bundaberg, we remember sunset dinners, passages spent talking to dolphins and that this wonderful boat was our only home for a year.

She is now ready for new dreams and so are we. I haven’t detailed much about what we are up to on here yet, but we are not done with sailing rest assured of that.

While we are yearning to start sailing some long miles to places far away lately we have been rediscovering the joy of gunkholing around some of Sydney’s marvellous cruising grounds. As the temperature and winds drop, the waterways get real quiet this time of year, so last week we took the opportunity to spend some time cruising around Pittwater and Broken Bay. One special winter anchorage we have reacquainted ourselves with is the delightful Portuguese Bay. In Pittwater just south of Coaster’s retreat( The Basin) it is well protected from westerly winds and is a great spot with the added benefit that you will probably have the beach and bay to yourself as we did for two days. We anchored in about 7-8 metres of water and then Sophie and I swam in to the beach (yes even this time of year we can’t keep Sophie out of the water!)for a bit of beach soccer and sandcastles before back onboard for a warm shower,  sundowners in the cockpit and then dinner and Nim’s Island for movie night. The benefit of sailing a few miles everyday and dropping anchor as you please in the afternoon is that it makes for some fantastic family cruising at this stage of our lives. Sammy is at his happiest and most settled on the boat. Sophie loves sailing and is becoming a bonafide, contributing crew member at the age of 4. Our blog has been pretty quiet lately as life circumstances have gotten in the way, also making it hard lately to steal the time to go sailing.

Our boat is now 25 years old. In that time I don’t believe the rudder has ever been dropped.

Last time we were out of the water I thought about it, but we had the hull soda blasted, faired and a new barrier coat + antifoul applied. We also replaced the PSS Gland and at that point the chequebook really began to hurt.  In the back of my mind I was concerned about rudder, I knew it was ‘wet’ but figured it could wait. We were working long hours, going to have a baby and not intending on anything more than local cruising, another year wouldn’t hurt.

Ignorance is bliss right?

So out of the water again sure enough a cursory investigation made it pretty clear things were not all well with rudder.

Water had been intruding of course and there was some movement between the rudder blade and stock.

After removing the rudder it also became clear the quadrant was showing signs of fatigue and corrosion.

While these discoveries can be demoralising( and expensive), I figure it is wiser to lose your rudder in a perfectly equipped boatyard than in the middle of the
Tasman Sea. More lessons learn’t.

Introducing Iolanthe’s newest crew addition Sammy.

Arriving early with some drama he has been a brilliant surprise Christmas present! We are stoked and absolutely besotted.

He is also the reason why we have been a bit quiet of late, lots of boat projects waiting to start , lots of ideas and plans for this year but for the time being we are taking it all one moment at a time and enjoying the joys of a new bub.