Overwintering in Malta:weather & language?

rustybarge

rustybarge

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Hi all,
What's the winter weather like in Malta from oct-feb? I would be happy with a bit of sunshine everyday .....temp. Does not matter.

Do the Maltese speak fluent English , or is it pigeon dialect ?

What is cost of living like?

Is there a boating community in the marinas, which is best place to moor?

Thanks for your help,

Peter.
 
rustybarge said:
Hi all,
What's the winter weather like in Malta from oct-feb? I would be happy with a bit of sunshine everyday .....temp. Does not matter.

Do the Maltese speak fluent English , or is it pigeon dialect ?

What is cost of living like?

Is there a boating community in the marinas, which is best place to moor?

Thanks for your help,

Peter.
Click to expand...
Hi Peter,
We were based in Portomaso along with another forumite.We enjoyed Malta, interesting historically indeed.Winter weather is better up to Christmas, but it can be cold and wet Jan/Feb/March.Indeed there was a very cold snap in early April one year.
The best place to try to get a scarce place is in Msida creek, which has the only still water in Malta.Everywhere else including Portomaso suffers from surge in winter or indeed many other times also.So strong mooring compensators are mandatory in Portomaso, and essential elswhere.The plastimo type of wire ones are useless.
Many haul out at Manoel island boatyard for the winter.Manoel Island Marina is a separate organisation and they also have hard standing.
Some privatisation has by now occurred in at least Manoel Island Boatyard.

Good English is spoken.Attempts to learn the local language will be hampered by its sheer complexity due to it being an amalgam of many different sources.

We did not find prices to be cheap, but if you have a Sterling source of income, so much the better presently.
Apart from OP Richard 1002 who will be along shortly, we did not find many other convivial opportunities to socialise in the marina, but often our guests visited by air and enjoyed their visits.
Bus transport is particularly good value and the old romantic 50's style ones have I understand, now all been replaced.Perhaps the potholes in the roads will now have to be attended to more regularly!
You may expect more comment from OP's and if any of the foregoing is out of date, I will be gratefully corrected by others.
 
Maltese winter

Can be cold when the gregale blows. Overcoat weather then.
And strong!!!??? blows the blocks off a bull.
Big surge in Sliema creek. Even destroyers have to get out.
The next creek (known then as minesweeper creek, the inner side of Manoel Island) has a strong surge which makes a stern-to mooring a bit dicey.
The last creek, Msida, remains fairly calm, but the big church there loves fireworks, expecially mortali which drive any pets stark staring mad.
Story about Msida Creek, which was the submarine base.
The big depot ship trying to berth on a windy Sunday morning helped by two tugs, who were not exactly on the ball. An exasperated Captain (Jackie) Slaughter RN seized the loud hailer and broadcast to the world "Call yourself a tugmaster? You couldn't pull a black man off your grandmother." (This was 1952 remember)
This echoed round the island and disturbed archbishop Michael Gonzi in the middle of mass.
Only the end of the world could have caused more upset.
Avoid Msida creek during fiesta.
Ewah, Giuss.
 
Msida marina for one winter might be fine and enjoyable. Plenty of visitors, so a good chance of a social life. Be careful of being ripped off at every turn - particularly the chandler at Portomaso!

On October 9th 2007 my SWMBO flew in, the heavens opened, and the gregale blew for 5 or 6 days.... Not far off a hell on earth for a yachtsman in Malta! There are generally 5 or 6 gregales between October and March.

English is widely spoken.

Lots of history, so plenty to see.

SWMBO will never go again, and I might use it for a winter stop off if heading that way, but am not bothered if I never go again :(
 
We stayed in Grand Harbour 2009/2010 and really liked it. There were a few liveaboards around and also crew from big boats so found it pretty sociable. Also found it easy to make friends with locals who were all great. I think we paid 1800 euros for six months (9.7m). I think it is hard to get berths though. Also found it relatively cheap for food if using local shops and beer seemed OK (2 euros a pint for (Cisk).
 
Thanks for all your advise.

I was looking for somewhere to go in the med. for the winter months. My criteria were as follows:
Must speak English fluently. I've spent a lot of winters in s.france, I can't hack the rude arrogant French anymore, and they prefer Germans to English speakers. Can you really understand Napolonic law? Me neither.

Looking at the map of the med. there are two choices: gib and Malta.
Gib is tiny and when I visited some years ago was a honky-Tonk border town. Would you want to spend 5 months of the year there?

.........yikes. Any suggestions are welcome.
 
Tunisia? Some forum items have spent time there, and I think English is generally spoken. I would guess that a large part of Greece speak English
 
Thanks Richard,

I will look into tunisia, but my sister who lives in France has employed lots of Tunisian builders, all of them spoke fluent French ....but not a word of English .
 
Malta has got the oldest Manchester United supporters club.My wife and I will be there on Boxing Day. Brill!

Flying there this time, rather than going by boat. Will make a change from the marina in Gib where we live. :)
 
capnsensible said:
Malta has got the oldest Manchester United supporters club.My wife and I will be there on Boxing Day. Brill!

Flying there this time, rather than going by boat. Will make a change from the marina in Gib where we live. :)
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Hi skip,
Looks like you were thinking the same as me. What's gib really like? I knew a Maltese couple some years ago....seemed very nice.....but a bit ' mrs Bucket' ......maybe cos its a very small place. Do you think the weather is good enough?

Peter
 
I wintered in Msida Marina although it was back in 2006. One thing I would advise is be aware that about September time there is a well attended race, I think The 'Triangle' or 'Middle Sea' or something like that and a berth anywhere on the main island will be almost impossible to secure at that time. The place is awash with racing folk and I recall they moved some yachts out to Gozo just to make room for competitors boats in Msida. I was lucky, I arrived from Greece after all the rumpus had finished.
Never wore much more than jeans, T shirt and sweat shirt during the winter, a bit damp at times but bearable. Very interesting local history of a brave resilient people, I got on great with the locals but if you play the posh yottie quite understandably they get the hump..:D English is very widely spoken. One of it's great advantages over Gibraltar is...it's a very long way from Spain..:D
 
Hi downsman, the £64k question is, would you return for another winter? Totally agree what you say about Spain , my daughter works there & says the expats are ghastly. That's why I was looking for an English speaking country that was not expat. What is it with yachties and their attitude......ok so they have a bit of canvas on a pole, so what?
 
Hi downsman, the £64k question is, would you return for another winter?

Ha! That was my intention in 2010, I was bound East from the Balearics for Sardinia, Sicily then Malta for the winter but I had major engine failure and managed to get to anchor at Isla San Pietro. (West coast Sardinia) I never did make Malta that trip..:(
As everywhere else, some people like Malta while some are glad to leave. I loved it. There were about half a dozen liveaboards in Msida, some Brits a couple of long voyaging Kiwis, an American couple and a German couple on a Catamaran. There was a restaurant at the marina which was an ex sailing vessel once owned by some famous film star, but one of the staff was a crook and 'cloned' someones credit card. He was captured by the local police but that was really the only bad experience during my stay, and it wasn't my card..:)

Grandaughter is doing her Masters at the moment and hammering my wallet, but without doubt my next voyage to the Med will include a stay on Malta.
 
Thanks for your advise. I will definitely go for a look. Sounds perfect. At the moment I live on the river, side on mooring, v. Private. So plan is find good mooring....then buy boat in 10m range.hoping I can buy long lease if poss. Only worry is that i might get cabin fever in such a small place, but maybe it would make a good base to cruise med. from.
 
99.9% of all dreams are possible if you stick with it..:D Malta is not as isolated as it might seem. A days sail to the North will get you to Sicily and then cross the Strait and you're on the Italian mainland or away to the South-West lies Tunisia, although along the rest of the North African shore there is not the place to be just now..unless you're handy with an RPG..:D
 
As it happen my sis lives close to nice, I've often seen the ferry to Corsica dep. from there. I might go nice, Corsica, Sardinia , Sicily.......Malta by car, have a look around then return via Italy ; want to see Pisa, Florence etc. now that's a trip.
 
I spent two winters in Malta, at Miuda - a desperately overcrowded Island with road surfaces that are possibly the worst in Europe.

I found the Maltese very friendly, most speak quite good English, there are very high levels of competence in marine work around the island - probably a greater concentration than anywhere else.
The points about storm surge in all berths except those in Msida are definitely a problem, together with flooding during the winter storms a very real possibility.

Having seen the comment about French arrogance, I'm afraid that the probability is that that is as much down to the arrogance of Brits abroad in expecting everyone to speak English as to any French trait. If anything they suffer from a lack of confidence and an apprehension of le defi Anglo-Saxon - for many Anglo-Saxon is an ultimate term of vituperation.
Speaking personally, I've found the French as friendly as any other European people and have enjoyed more hospitality (and argument) with them than with most Brits.

"Would the Gods the giftie gie us to see oursels as others see us".

It was a Maltese who pointed out to me that no true Maltese would consider selling his mother for a bag of corn, but he might be tempted by a couple..

PS If you're into classical music there are usually a couple of chamber concerts a week in various churches, the organ in the original cathedral, in Mdina, is superb and there are two functioning opera houses on the island.
PPS My experience of Malta was, perhaps, spoilt by a break-in on the boat and about £9K of gear being stolen - thieving from non-live-aboard boats is endemic, especially in Msida.
 
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charles_reed said:
My experience of Malta was, perhaps, spoilt by a break-in on the boat and about £9K of gear being stolen - thieving from non-live-aboard boats is endemic, especially in Msida.
Click to expand...

Anticipate being in Malta in late Feb so is Malta worse than elsewhere for theft?

Do you believe these thefts are from within the marinas or external (stealing-to-sell)?
 
Hi Charles,
Regarding your comments about the French being a kind, retiring race wanting to strike up conversation with Brits at every opportunity, I would like to remind you of the Hundred Years' War , Napolian Bonaparte etc, and the tendency for every French person to refer to us as ' roast beefs'. In my experience they much prefer the Germans, ie Herr
Merckle et al.......remember Vichy France!
 
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