The Hike up the Navarino Bay Castle

One of the attractions is the hike up to the Navarino bay castle. It is far enough out, that it does not draw flocks of tourists, churned out by air-conditioned buses. Therefore, the castle is mostly left alone, and this is reinforced with the signs “Castle is Closed”, to discourage would be hikers to make to trek to the top. We hiked using the traditional path to the castle, and in fact, the biggest challenge was to avoid the millions of spiders, that had set up their web between the trees on our way up. As this was a route not well traveled, we had to duck our way under the spider webs. The castle was mostly left alone, as in, it was too far and high up to pillage the building materials, and it was also not restored. Big chunks of the castle had fallen down, offering us a view into the construction of the castle. Wood does not stand the test of time too well, as demonstrated by the chunks of castle that had come down. The castle stretched over a large part of the summit, and the views, to the horse-shoe beach, the bay and the sea were stunning.

Panorama from Navarino Bay

Crossing from Greece.

Against our own cruising philosophy, we spent two nights in the Port of Valletta, waiting out the worst storm of the year, so far received in Malta (according to the locals). When we finally left Valletta, the winds had subsided to about 3 BF, but the waves where still there, as a reminder of the storm past. As crossing to Greece in these conditions would be uncomfortable, we spent the night on a mooring in the Marsaxlokk bay. Even in 3 meters of water depth, there was not a trace to be seen on the bottom. Marsaxlokk, does not only have the cool name, it also combines the most authentic fishing harbor and town, with the largest container terminal of Malta. The next day we finally set sail, and the fore-casted 4 BF had temporarily increased to 6. Our first challenge was to navigate our way through the tanker field, just east of Malta, stretching for 20 nautical miles. We all have to mind our swing circles, and when anchored in 100 meters of water depth, I would expect the swing circle to have a diameter of over half a kilometer. The tankers did not seem to mind being anchored in 6 bf, 20 NM offshore, and onwards we went. The wind and waves went down as we increased our distance from Malta, and we had the genacker sail up for most of the remainder of the trip. When we were on the gennacker, we had the pleasure of welcoming a guest that took the time to drop into the cabin of our boat. After 3 days, we finally arrived in Navarino bay, which was quite nice, so we decided to spent the next five days in the bay.

My first time on a mooring was in Marsaxlokk. I was glad that I didn't have to anchor, as the bay was quite industrial, and we couldn't see the bottom.

Crossing the tanker field in 6 BF

Tuxington in lifejacket

Crossing can be hard work!!

An unexpected visitor

Arrival in Navarino Bay

the Locals at Navarino Bay

Panorama - Navarino Bay Castle

The Castle at Navarino  Bay in Greece

Solar Powered Pizza Recipe

Below is my favorite pizza recipe. I use the electrical oven on board, which is solar powered via the inverter. When making this pizza in Norway, it would be hydropowered pizza, and be just as good. No Pizza stone required.

Ingredients (serves 4):

For crust:

1. 400 gram whole wheat flower (e.g. Number 110)
2. Package of yeast
3. pinch of salt
4. 30 ml olive oil (optional)
5. 150 ml water
6. baking paper

For sauce

1. Canned tomatoes
2. jar of pesto

For Toppings

NB. Toppings shown below are a mere suggestion. Go wild here with your favorite toppings.

1. Feta cheese or blue cheese
2. mushrooms
3. tuna or anchovies
4. bell pepper
5. union

Preparation

I usually make the crust in the bread machine, or the kitchen machine. Add the flower, yeast, salt, optional olive oil and water and knead the dough. You are looking for a consistency where the dough does not stick, and there are no lumps. If the dough sticks too much, add flower, if there are lumps and it does not mix, add water. Now separate the dough in two lumps, and roll out on the kitchen paper. If you did not add olive oil, the dough will be a little bit sticky, so use some flower between the baking paper and dough, and dough and bread roller (nb wine, whiskey etc bottle will work equally well). Roll the dough out in round, pizza sized shapes and leave to rise. If you are a fan of thin crusts, as little as 5 minutes can be sufficient, or if you like tick crusts, you may have to wait up to 40 minutes. For a thicker crust, consider adding a little bit of honey to the crust, to help the yeast. Bake the crust for 5 minutes at 175 degrees, flip the crusts and bake on the other side for an additional 5 minutes.

Mix the tomatoes and pesto together for the sauce. Prepare the toppings by slicing them thin. Now all you need to do, is spread the sauce on the crusts, and add the toppings. Bake in the oven for an additional 10 minutes at 175 degrees or until the cheese melts.

Malta and the origins of Spiteri

Upon entering the our secluded cove in Malta after leaving Sicily, I noticed a very different landscape.  Steep sandstone clifs erupted vertically out of the water, there were no nigh rise apartments, it was not a land easily approached by water, and yet I have learned that Malta has been the home of countless civilizations.  As early as 3000 years before the Egyptians, in the “bronze age” early inhabitants made the home.  The appetite for the Maltese Archipelago continued through to the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Spanish, Italians, French, and British.   The landscape was largely unforgiving.  The land is dry and rocky, and water is scarce.  There is fish in abundance, but so is it in the rest of the Med.  So why did these people, including my perhaps my relatives from a long time ago (Spiteri is a Maltese last name) choose to conquer and reconquer Malta, Gozo, and little Camino?  I couldn’t appreciate why until we found shelter from 2 significant storm systems.  Malta is full of little bays and shelters from storms where by any wind direction, you can chose from basket of secluded and protected coves by simply going to the lee side of the island and waiting out the storm.  Alternatively, you can enter the fjord like system of protected bays of Valleta which gave us shelter from one of the largest storms they had seen all year.  As a sailor, a comfortable nights rest from the wind and waves is a more valuable refueling stop than a convenient petrol station.  It’s the island’s position as the perfect resting place between developing Europe and the east (Arabia, India, Egypt, etc…) which probably made it so popular among travelers.  The geology of the island makes unique with its high clifs eroded by the sea creating secret caves, fjords, coves, and protected bays offering perfect protection from the elements, a feature we could not find anywhere else.  With all the places to hide, invaders could gather before making a targeted attack on one of the few ports in the island where you can actually enter from the sea to the land….but not before climbing the fortresses carved out of the sandstone cliffs.

The armies of the crusades would stop in Malta on their way to Jerusalem and the injured would return to Malta to get medical attention.  The Templar knights of the crusades had several orders including the “Hospitallars” which built the first hospices and hospitals on Malta to care for the travelers.  On our bicyle tour of Valleta, we stopped in to a shop with Spiteri on the marquee and asked to speak with Mr. Spiteri.  The nice man offered to share his story of the origins of Spiteri.  Apparently during thereign of the “Hostpitilaris”, the knights would see a beautiful woman and observe her for weeks until one day he finally went into her house where he then removed his boots and placed them at the front door.  This meant that there was a knight inside the house and no one, not even the father or family was supposed to enter.  Then after 9 months or so the children of the knights or the Spiteri’s came to Malta from this not very traditional family arrangement.  While this may or may not be the real history, it was certainly the most charming story coming from the old gentlemen I met on Malta.  On our second night on anchor after being boarded by the Maltese police from their boat, they looked at my surname on my passport and with a smile said “welcome home”.  It was fun to see all the shop windows owned and operated by a Spiteri.  Officials, mechanics, and other friendly island folks all asked me if I was related to someone they knew.

The cultural history of the island is rich as it is diverse.  Once you make your way up to the fortress of Valleta, you are surrounded by monuments built (or rebuilt) by French, British, Spanish monarchs and the like.  The more impressive ones are the churches of the evangelists St John, St. Paul, and the palace of the knights of St. John where the grand master lived.  The language is a mix of Arabic and Italian and everyone speaks fluent English and drives on the left side of the road.  The style of the colorful fishing boats looks Egyptian with the wooden Turkish “eye” on each of them for protection. The Maltese people are deeply religious and mostly catholic and it is hard not to stumble onto a beautiful church while strolling the town.      

So like my ancestors a long time ago, I chose not to make roots in Malta and sail onward.  In our case we catch a westerly wind towards Greece.  

thunderstorm on the radar on the way down the Sicilian coast