Captain Ron shore sheet
Quick verdict
The Blue Lagoon is genuinely as good as the photographs and genuinely as busy as you fear. Go early, go on a weekday, and treat it as a swim stop rather than a bed. Everything Zen worked this stretch repeatedly through July and August 2026 — Comino-bound out of Marsamxett, round the island, through the channels to Gozo and back — and on the nights she wanted to sleep she went and sat somewhere else. That is the honest answer and the rest of this page explains why.
The lie of the land
Comino sits in the gap between Malta and Gozo with tiny Cominotto off its western corner. The water between the two islets is the Blue Lagoon — Bejn il-Kmiemen in Maltese — and it opens roughly west-south-west. Round the north side you get San Niklaw Bay and Santa Marija Bay, both facing broadly north to north-east. St Mary's Tower, the big square 17th-century watchtower, stands on the south-west corner and is the landmark you steer off for most of the island.
- Blue Lagoon / Bejn il-Kmiemen — the famous one, between Comino and Cominotto, shallow, pale sand, opens WSW.
- Crystal Lagoon — south of Cominotto, deeper, dramatic, and mostly a tour-boat and swim-through destination rather than a berth.
- San Niklaw Bay — north side, next to the old hotel jetty. Open north.
- Santa Marija Bay — north-east side, sandy, with the little chapel and the tamarisk trees ashore. Open north to north-east.
- South Comino Channel — between Comino and Malta. North Comino Channel — between Comino and Gozo, and the one the Gozo ferries use.
The stop, in three lines
Comino has no marina, no fuel and no chandlery. It is buoys and anchors only. Nearest real berths are Mgarr on Gozo, or the Marsamxett creeks about eleven miles south-east.
Bird sanctuary ashore, protected seabed afloat. Eco-moorings are the intended way to stop. Keep chain off the Posidonia.
Roughly three hours up the north Malta coast at cruising speed, or 2.5 NM from Little Armier. Morning passage, every time.
Anchoring at Comino Blue Lagoon
Here is the part everyone gets wrong. Comino and the water around it are protected — a Natura 2000 site, a bird sanctuary ashore and a marine protected area afloat, with meadows of Posidonia oceanica that the whole regime exists to defend. The working rule we sail by is simple: use the eco-moorings, and do not put an anchor into seagrass. A chain dragged through Posidonia does damage that takes decades to grow back, and it is exactly the behaviour the buoys were installed to stop.
The Blue Lagoon itself is small, shallow and heavily used. In season the usable water is largely taken up by moorings, swimming areas and the day-boat operation, and the space left for a 14-metre yacht to lie to her own anchor with proper scope is not generous. Treat the lagoon as a place you visit for a few hours on a buoy or a short lunch stop, not a place you spread out in.
Where the quiet night actually is
Our own answer, several times over, was not in the Blue Lagoon. In an easterly, the lagoon and Paradise Bay on the Malta side are both west-facing and both comfortable — that was the plan we ran for a day sail out of Marsamxett, Blue Lagoon first thing and then a mile and a half south to Paradise Bay for the afternoon. Both have beach bars you can swim to, which is a legitimate navigational consideration.
For sleeping, we favoured Little Armier on the Malta side of the South Comino Channel: 7.7 m over sand, room to swing, and a shore that is quiet after the last day boat has gone home. It opens north and north-east, so an onshore NE breeze is the thing that moves you on — and when it does, the Blue Lagoon is only about 2.5 miles away and opens the other way. That pairing, Little Armier and the Blue Lagoon as each other's bolt-holes, is the single most useful thing we learned in this corner of Malta.
On the Comino side, Santa Marija Bay is the traditional overnight choice and the one that empties out in the evening. It is sand, it is pretty, and it is wide open to the north-east, so it is a settled-weather berth only. San Niklaw next door has the same exposure. Neither is a place to be caught by a Gregale.
Honest caveat: we day-sailed, swam and transited Comino repeatedly, but we did not spend a night lying in the Blue Lagoon, so we cannot tell you first-hand what 03:00 there feels like. What we can tell you is that every time the decision was ours, we took the boat somewhere else to sleep.
The Comino channels
Both channels are short, both are scenic, and both compress whatever wind is about. The North Comino Channel between Comino and Gozo carries the Cirkewwa–Mgarr ferry traffic; the South Comino Channel between Comino and Malta is the one you use running the north Malta coast. Everything Zen ran the north-coast shuffle through here again and again — Marsamxett to Little Armier, round Comino to Ramla l-Hamra on Gozo, and back — and the pattern was consistent: fine early, lumpier and busier after lunch, and the ferry always has somewhere to be.
- Time the channels for the morning. The Malta sea breeze routinely doubles the wind by mid-afternoon.
- Watch for ferry wash even when the ferry itself is a mile off. It arrives late and from an unhelpful angle.
- Near Cirkewwa on the Malta side, the ferry terminal is the hazard: keep well clear of the fairway, and note it is also Malta's main dive site, so expect divers' buoys and boats moving slowly.
- The gap is narrow enough that a boat under sail has very little room to change her mind. Have the engine ready.
Ashore on Comino
There is almost nothing there, which is the charm. A permanent population you can count on your fingers, no cars, no town, a chapel at Santa Marija, a few seasonal kiosks around the lagoon and a network of dusty walking tracks. St Mary's Tower — Torri ta' Santa Marija — is the one proper building: a great square Wignacourt-era watchtower on the southern cliffs, restored and open to visitors on limited days, and instantly recognisable to anyone who has seen the film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. The walk out to it from Santa Marija Bay is hot, exposed and entirely worth it if you go early.
Comino is also a bird sanctuary, and the island is far more interesting at 07:00 than at 13:00. If you want the Blue Lagoon without four thousand friends, be on it before the first day boat leaves Cirkewwa.
Best things to do
- Swim the Blue Lagoon before 09:00, when the water is still yours and the colour is genuinely absurd.
- Walk out to St Mary's Tower on the southern cliffs — the best half-hour on the island, and shadeless, so go early.
- Snorkel the Crystal Lagoon and the caves under Cominotto from the dinghy rather than fighting the tour boats for space.
- Santa Marija Bay in the evening: the chapel, the tamarisk trees, and an island that has gone completely quiet.
- Cross to Mgarr on Gozo for a proper dinner and a night with lines on, if the crew has had enough of swinging.
Provisions, drinks, and getting a beer delivered
There is no proper provisioning on Comino. Stock up in Mellieha, Bugibba or Valletta before you come, or run into Mgarr on Gozo. Seasonal kiosks at the lagoon do food and drink ashore. There is also a floating cocktail bar working the Comino and Armier stretch in season — mixologists on their own boat, delivering to yachts at anchor, which is either the most civilised thing in Maltese waters or the end of civilisation depending on your mood. Ours had an engine problem the day we tried, which felt fair.
Crew missions
Captain Ron bottom line
Comino is a day, not a destination. Get there early, take a buoy, swim in water that genuinely looks like that, and be gone before the fleet arrives. Then go and sleep somewhere with room to swing and a shore that goes quiet. The Blue Lagoon is worth every mile you sail to see it and none of the ones you would sail to sit in it at midnight.