19 Aug - 20 Sep 2001 Valletta

Central Mediterranean
Republic of Malta
Malta Island
Valletta
Msida Marina +35621332800
SY "Kamu II" stern to the pontoon, with two bow moorings.
ML 68.- (DM 315.-) per month.

Click below for an interactive satellite view of our marina berth:

Click below for a summary of this year's travels:
2001 Map Konni & Matt






Clearing harbourmaster (our friend and fellow sailor Chris), customs and immigration at the one-stop Malta Yachting Centre +35621332800 near the entrance to Msida Creek, not only all free of charge, but also fast and efficient since Malta wanted to join the European Community, and being impressed with the total lack of any red tape.

Exploring La Valletta, the capital city of Malta and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the place where on the 28th March 1566 CE the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, Jean Parisot de la Valette, had ceremoniously laid down the foundation stone of what was to become one of the first European cities to have been built in a chequered pattern.

Walking through the hilly streets and stairways that criss cross the city of Valletta from one side to the other, from Marsamxett Harbour to Grand Harbour, and marvelling at her Baroque churches, stunning palaces (many of these palaces served as the auberge for a particular langue of Knights), manicured gardens (stuffed full of busts, statues and plaques illustrating various personalities and significant events from the Maltese history) and impregnable forts (which are still marked with scars from German and Italian dive-bombers from WWII).

Counting the over 400 coloured marble tombstones that had been used to pave the floor of St. John's Co-Cathedral.

Touring Malta with our competent tour guide Larry and thus visiting Victoriosa (with the large fortification of Fort St Angelo which the Royal Navy - with an English sense of humour - listed as a ship, originally as HMS "Egremont" in 1912 CE, but then renamed as HMS "St Angelo" in 1933 CE), Senglea (also called Civitas Invicta, because it managed to resist the Ottoman invasion at the Great Siege of 1565 CE), the double-fortified harbour city of Cospicua, St. Paul's Grotto in Rabat (once a Roman prison and later a WWII air-raid shelter), Mdina (the old capital of Malta situated in the centre of the island) and Mosta's dome with its famous German dud from 1942 CE.

Matt: Scrambling through Fort St. Elmo which was built by the Knights of St. John in 1552 CE, with an impending Ottoman Turk invasion in mind, and which stands on the seaward shore of the Sciberras Peninsula that divides Marsamxett Harbour from Grand Harbour, and commands the entrances to both harbours.

DM Konni: Discovering the underwater world around Malta, Gozo and Comino with Octopus Garden Diving Centre +35621578725 at Salina Bay in Qawra.