         Daisy’s Last Day |
St. Paul’s Bay, Malta
Today was Daisy’s last day with us – she flies back to the UK tomorrow. What a fabulous time we’ve had with her. So today had to be extra special to round it all off. We started with some diving! Up to Cirkewwa to dive two shipwrecks. The first one was a patrol boat, the P29, one of my favourite Maltese dives. It’s an ex German minesweeper that was deliberately sunk here in 2007. At 64m long and 16m high it’s a great size for a dive. The visibility on the wreck is good, there is a lot of life growing on it already and many, many fish. The wreck lies upright with the stern in about 32m and the bottom of the bow in around 38m. We had a good explore of one of the open hatch areas and the deck house. The superstructure is all intact and there is a gun on the front. All very picturesque covered in coral. I think I have some reasonable shots which I will put up when I get home and have access to my missing cable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDwhDu5 BQBQ gives a good idea.
We then had a good hour’s break for hot coffee and cake. There are a lot of divers always at Cirkewwa because of the relative ease of access to the water and also the range of diving there. Anything from a few metres in depth, all the way down.
Our second dive was on the shipwreck of the Rozi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFsQf8h MuqE shows it pretty clearly. Including the swimthrough cave on the way to it. The Rozi was a tugboat and was sunk in 1992 as a diver attraction. The wheelhouse and the hatches are open for penetration. She sits upright in about 35m. Again, the visibility is very good and there is a lot of life on the wreck. Of the two, I prefer the P29 but they are both excellent dives. So a fantastic round up of diving with Daisy. She did massively well all week after a break of a couple of years. Not easy dives.
Spent the afternoon around the pool topping up the tans! Tonight we went out for a celebration dinner to our favourite restaurant on Malta, Tarragon in St Paul’s Bay. It’s really amazing food and a lovely waterside location. We opted for a shared starter which came in 5 courses. But first the chef sent out an amuse bouche of orange scented carrot soup with an olive reduction globule. Delicious. The five starters were: fresh tuna smoked at the table on Californian woodchips with balsamic mini globules and micro herbs; tempura prawns, garlic calamari (the best ever), a rabbit filo pastry with red wine reduction sauce; lobster and crab tortelli. To be honest we were all full by the end of this! Then for mains, I had lamb two ways: herb crusted rack of lamb and sesame seeded lamb tenderloin served with a rosemary and red wine sauce, Daisy had ribeye steak with mushroom and truffle sauce and Bob had a veal ribeye steak. It was all absolutely delicious but so much……. we washed it down with a lovely red wine from Chile served in a very interesting horn shaped decanter.
No one could possibly have faced dessert or even coffee. We tottered out and staggered home. A wonderful meal and a great end to Daisy’s stay with us. How we shall miss her for our last couple of days here. We are hoping for a repeat in the future.