We made it back up top to watch the gun salute at noon, and then headed back to the ferry to locate a Chandler and check prices on a new main halyard. Unfortunately it wasn’t the type of line Todd was looking for, so Dom and I hiked over to St Julian’s Bay and the Hilton Hotel.
(Malta is pretty flat and the big blue Hilton is one of the few landmarks you can see when you are arriving by boat). The entrance to the marina Portomaso at the foot of the Hilton, was dauntingly narrow and didn’t have much room for maneuvering a wide catamaran (we didn’t see any in there either!). It was a great place to catch a cab back to Valletta though, and we got a first hand look at the “fluid” driving style of the Maltese! By this time we were starting to run out of steam for sight seeing, and the rest of Malta would have to wait for another time.
