Lost Valletta!

A 2-hour delay departing Trapani last night due to slow bunkering + fairly heavy rockin’ and rollin’ overnight which slowed down Insignia en route to Malta. But that wasn't the reason why we lost Valletta today.

When a rare ding-dong of the P/A system broadcast into the cabin at 8:30a was followed by the voice of Captain Brajcic, I was thinking he might be announcing a delay in our arrival into Valletta. After all, at the time, we were off-shore from another Maltese island, Gozo, with a bit more to go to reach the Island of Malta.

But no, it wasn’t a delay he was announcing. Rather, it was the cancelation of our port of call.

To get into Valletta, the ship needs to go through a narrow channel between two fortifications. Strong crosswinds are a problem, therefore. And that’s exactly what the conditions were like in Valletta this morning. So, the Maltese Port Authority deemed it too dangerous for us to dock. Thus, in the blink of an eye, Valletta went bye-bye.

So, now we have three days at sea en route to Ashdod, Israel instead of two.Read more