We almost didn’t get out of Malta. I will explain later. But if we had been shanghaied and made to stay, I can’t think of a more interesting place to be held captive.
Without a doubt the entrance to this cruise stop was the most fantastic we have ever seen. The ramparts, clay walls, forts, houses etched out of the clay....amazing.
I must have taken a thousand pics. The water is a beautiful azure blue mixed with aqua marine. And it was fekking (another awesome Brit word I have picked up) hot.
We were on an excursion that visited three different areas of Malta and at each we were given one hour free time. We stopped at little cafes along the way and had beer and baguette and did a little shopping and sat in cool breezes in tree shaded squares and watched the Maltese wander by doing their Saturday shopping.
Malta is much much more ... old and almost Arabic looking. I was surprised. Plus, it is obviously a mecca for resort seekers. Tourism is their number one income. I can see why!
We got back to our ship around two and we were due to leave at three. I love getting back to the stateroom, hot and dirty and tired and sweaty...and you walk into a pristinely cleaned room, airconditioned down to a cool 65 degrees, cold diet coke in the tiny fridge ..Mmmmmm....nothing better.
Right below the port (our) side was a very large oil barge, still bunkering fuel, supposedly. I had noticed it at our ship earlier in the day and made mention to Bill that that was the slowest fuel up I have seen on a ship yet.
We were due to leave at 3 and we simply didn’t leave. Twice the Captain came on the blower apologizing for the delay but promised we would be leaving soon. We didn’t leave.
At one point he blew the ship’s whistle...one very long blow. Now we were puzzled. Pretty soon he came back on and said that we were fueled up, the paper work done..but they were trying to get the barge to move off the ship (it was tied to our ship at this point). For whatever reason, not told to us, it wouldn’t go.
Pretty soon an hour had gone by. I heard a boat and went out on the deck and saw the pilot boat (which had already dispersed the pilot on board and was floating around waiting for us to leave) pull up to the barge, and the pilot boat driver hopped out and went over to the bridge of the barge and started yelling and swearing and waving his arms around. Then he pulled away and floated around some more.
Next a person came out of the barge bridge, went over to our ship edge (I couldn’t see who it was on our ship) and started to yell. And he was ANGRY!!! This went on forever! Back and forth and more yelling. Now it was almost five oclock.
I don’t know what happened but the barge finally pulled in its ropes, very very slowly, and even more slowly pulled away. We finally got away almost two hours late. No explanation from the captain. Bill thinks P&O haven’t paid their bills! Could be...who knows!
Our dinner tonight was a 61/2 from Bill and a 7 from me. Good lasagna and fish tonight but crappy salad a potatoes.
Tomorrow is an at sea day. Hair washing. Done by myself thank you very much. Damn Oooooissshhh! I am going to complain about him...but in the Canadian way. I won’t complain until we get off the ship. Haha TTYL
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