Malta · Strait of Sicily
The Maltese archipelago
Seven nights from Valletta — the Blue Lagoon at seven in the morning, Gozo's north coast, and a season that runs April to November.
7 nights · Round trip from Valletta
The archipelago is thirty miles end to end, which sounds like too little for a week and is in fact the argument for it. Nothing on this route is a passage; every day is short enough that the yacht can be somewhere at seven in the morning and somewhere else by lunch. That matters more here than anywhere else in this fleet's range, because the two best pieces of water in Malta are both overrun between ten and four and both empty either side of it.
The route, day by day
Day 1
Valletta
Board in the Grand Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in Europe and a fortification built for a fleet. The short run round to Marsamxett for the first night, with the bastions lit.
Day 2
Marsaxlokk
South-east round the island to the fishing village with the painted luzzu at anchor. The Sunday fish market is not staged for anyone; the Blue Grotto is an hour back west and best before the wind gets up.
Day 3
Comino
North to the Blue Lagoon between Comino and Cominotto. Anchored by seven, ashore before the day boats leave Ċirkewwa, and away again by the time it fills. This is the day the week is built around.
Day 4
Mġarr, Gozo
The crossing to the sister island takes under an hour. Slower, greener and emptier — terraced fields, and the salt pans on the north coast cut into the rock in the sixteenth century and still worked.
Day 5
Ramla Bay
Gozo's north coast, where the sand is red and the two bays are reachable far more easily from the water than from the lanes above them. The diving here is the best in the archipelago.
Day 6
Dwejra
Round to the west side for the inland sea and the tunnel through the cliff — the Azure Window fell in 2017 and the swim through the tunnel did not. Back east to Comino for a second, quieter night.
Day 7
Valletta
South across the channel with a last stop at St Paul's islands, and into the Grand Harbour past Fort St Angelo.
Worth knowing
- No yacht is based in Malta: what sails here is positioned, most often from Sicily, sixty miles north
- The season runs April to November — longer than anywhere else this fleet reaches except Cyprus
- The Blue Lagoon is gunwale to gunwale between ten and four and empty at seven: the route is timed for it, not around it
- Malta International is twenty minutes from the harbour, which makes this an unusually easy week to arrive for
- Sicily and Malta together is a fortnight, not a week — sixty miles is an overnight, and squeezing it costs both halves
Where this route goes
Yachts that sail this route
Itineraries
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