Day 22 – Departed Malta

Hi Everyone,I would like to send a special thank you to the Australian High Commission in Malta and the Malta Sail Training Association for the efforts that they put in organising our visit. Thanks to you the visit was a huge success with all of the Crew of Young Endeavour having a wonderful time and stating that they would all love to return. Many thanks!! Zach and Kirra have written tonight’s log and they have gone right back to our anchorage on Sunday 10th May to give you a day by day update on everything that has occurred during our stay in Malta and reading it I think that they have covered our visit extremely well. Enjoy!   Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain Gav  Captains Log15May 2015-05-09Ahoy followers!It’s been a while since the last time we spoke so there’s lots to catch up on!Sunday 10th May, Day 17, sees us arrive in Maltese waters and anchor off a cool little bay on the North east Coast. After battling some serious (not really) rough weather and finding ourselves not quite having proper sea legs, the early hours of this morning finds everyone in a state of fatigue after a hectic night of setting, furling, heaving and climbing sails. Especially the Blueys, who spent the majority of their Watch sprawled out across the ship, curled in a shivering ball, sleeping with crooked necks but not moving due to sea sickness and fatigue. The Reddies on the other hand had a great night thinking ourselves true sailors for not collapsing on the deck during the swell..at least until we did our climb for the night. A minute after our feet touched the deck ¾ of the climbers headed straight for sides to feed the fishies! Midmorning we arrived at our beautiful anchorage for the night so naturally the captain opened the swimming pool and even put up the rope swing! Many of the crewies and the staffies too enjoyed some time in the ocean. A quick briefing of the rest of the day and the arvo was ours to prepare for the teak deck BBQ and the infamous three-way chats. 1800 and three-way chats begins! This is a great get to know you exercise where 3 people form a group and the goal is to learn a few basic key things about each other and then present this to the crew in the form of third person. My group consisted of myself Vicki and Lucy. Lucy played me, Vicki played Lucy and I played Vicki. It was a very entertaining rendition of everyone’s lives with many a good laugh and aww. After a fantastic BBQ cooked by the wonderful staffies, with Gav at the hot plate (see captains do work!) we settled into anchor watches for the night. 1 hour rotations with 3 people on watch at a time.  Monday 11th May, Day 18Happy Birthday Mum!! Over the next two days world voyages went off in small groups to explore this majestic island. Malta is an island of very old buildings, heavily fortified from the World Wars and still shows today the history of that era. There are many wonders to see in Malta, from the World War 2 secret war rooms to the palaces, cathedrals and watch towers dotted through-out the island. Many a fortress still stands and can be visited. A group of us decided to do some recreational scuba diving on Tuesday which turned out to be a very successful day. Leaving at 0630, completing 2 dives and also seeing the famous village “Pop-eyes Village” an exhausted crew returned to the ship at 1800, had some dinner and pretty much crashed. Some adventurous people hired cars, scooters, took local buses long distances (about 18km) and even went camping! All in all we all thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Malta. A special thanks and shout out to our Maltese crew member and friend for life, Stefan Vella, for joining us and coming to visit us in the evenings. It has been an awesome adventure and it’s been great to have you onboard my friend. Wednesday morning a select group (those who chose to that is) got granted a tour of HMAS ANZAC which was very exciting. The lieutenant who guided us around was fantastic and answered our million and one questions so a very special thank you to lieutenant Brodie for the tour. We were shown a few select areas of the ship and got to see some pretty cool stuff (their officer’s mess is amazing!). After 2 hours we departed the ANZAC and went on our separate ways, meeting up later that arvo for the Sundowners Cocktail evening onboard Young Endeavour! Present at the evening were the High Commissioner and some of her staff, Rear Admiral Allen Du Toit, The Maltese Sail Association president along with other Dignitaries from Malta and Australia. Captain Gav even got treated to tea with the President of Malta!  Thursday again saw everyone using their last day in Malta wisely, getting up early to check out Camino, Blue Lagoon, Blue Grotto, Mdina and some other towns outside of Valetta. The evening was a quiet one with everyone exhausted from their travels and keen to get some rest before departing on the 9 day hike to Gibraltar.  Until next time, Zach and Kirra.Mr Smart – Happy 70th Birthday Old Man – Molly  Hey sis wishing you a very happy birthday from off the coast of Sicily. Hope you had a very special day. Lots of love, Nik.  Shout out from Kirra – Hey Dad, Mum, Carly, Lee, Mick & everyone else! I’m having an absolute ball, have seen some really amazing things and been on some cool adventures. Missing you all. (Happy belated Mothers Day, Mum). Love ya, xoxo.”