Captain Ron shore sheet
Quick verdict
Gozo gives you two very different stops. Ramla l-Hamra on the north coast is the pretty one: sand under the keel, red sand ashore, a hill town above it, and a bay big enough that nobody has to negotiate over swing circles. Mgarr on the south-east corner is the sensible one: a real harbour with a breakwater, a marina, fuel, and the Gozo Channel ferries thundering in and out of it all day. Use Ramla when the forecast is settled and southerly. Use Mgarr, or leave the island entirely, when it is not.
Everything Zen anchored at Ramla in early August 2026, went back to it on the night of 14 August after a diesel top-up in Malta, and lifted the hook before first light on 15 August for the 63-mile offshore run to Licata. On the first stay another cruising yacht lay about a cable off the quarter and there was still room for both of us to lie to a full scope without anybody getting nervous. That is the character of the place: roomy, sandy, and completely dependent on the weather behaving.
Anchoring at Ramla l-Hamra: read first
North coast of Gozo, below Xaghra and Nadur. Our own fixes on both stays sat around 36°03.9'N 014°17.1'E, roughly a quarter of a mile off the red sand, with the whole bay open ahead of us.
The red beach simply carries on underwater. Once the anchor is dug in it is honest holding. Set it properly, back down on it, and pick a patch of clean sand rather than dropping on weed.
There is no shelter at all from the northern half of the compass. Northerly swell arrives with nothing in its way, and even a light north-easterly puts a roll into the bay long before the wind itself feels serious.
Approach to Ramla l-Hamra
- Come in from seaward on a southerly heading. The bay is clean and open from the north, and the water you care about is the shelving sand as you close the beach, not any off-lying trap in the middle.
- The headlands either side are steep and rocky. Give them a proper offing rather than cutting the corner, and read the chart rather than the colour of the water.
- Anchor outside the buoyed bathing zone. Malta marks its popular beaches and small craft are expected to stay out of the marked swimming water. Ramla is one of the busiest beaches on Gozo in August.
- Drop on clean sand and back down hard. There is seagrass about, and Maltese waters take Posidonia seriously; if you can see dark weed under you, move and drop again on light bottom.
- Set an anchor alarm even in a flat calm. This bay has nothing behind it but beach, so the consequences of dragging are immediate rather than theoretical.
- Night departures are straightforward from here, which is exactly why we used it. Everything Zen slipped in the dark at around 04:30 on 15 August and was properly offshore and northbound by dawn.
Mgarr: the island's actual harbour
Mgarr sits on the south-east corner of Gozo and is the island's working port, the marina, and the Gozo Channel ferry terminal, all in one basin below a hillside of houses and the Lourdes chapel. It is the all-weather answer to a north coast that has no all-weather answers, and it is the place to go for berths, fuel and paperwork rather than trying to make Ramla be something it is not.
Treat the entrance with respect. The Gozo Channel ferries run a high-frequency shuttle to Cirkewwa on Malta and they turn inside that harbour; the fast-ferry service to Valletta uses it too. Big vessels manoeuvring in a small basin means the fairway is theirs and the wash is yours. Stand off, let them clear, then go in. Call ahead for a berth before you commit to the approach, and do not assume space in August.
If you are arriving in Malta from outside the country, sort your entry formalities properly rather than improvising them. Transport Malta is the authority for ports, yachting and pleasure-craft rules across the Maltese islands, and their guidance is the thing to read before you arrive, not after.
Get ashore
Landing at Ramla is a straightforward dinghy run onto sand, which is charming right up until any swell arrives, at which point it is a surf landing with your outboard as the sacrifice. There are a couple of cafes and a small stall tucked back behind the beach, and that is the extent of it. For anything real, the hill is the answer: Xaghra sits directly above the bay and gives you coffee, a shop, and the walk out to the Tal-Mixta cave for the view straight down onto your own boat. Victoria, the island's capital, is the proper errand base for a supermarket, a chandlery-adjacent hardware shop, banks and dinner.
Gozo is small enough that a taxi or a bus from the beach turns the whole island into a shore run. If the crew wants exercise, walk up. If the crew wants to arrive at dinner without looking like a boiled crew, do not walk up in August.
Best things to do
- The Cittadella, Victoria: the fortified old citadel on the hill in the middle of the island, with the whole of Gozo laid out from the walls. Best at the end of the day when the stone goes gold and the heat stops arguing.
- Ggantija, Xaghra: megalithic temples that predate the pyramids and are part of the UNESCO Megalithic Temples of Malta listing. Ten minutes from the top of the Ramla road.
- Tal-Mixta cave and Calypso's cave: the two viewpoints over Ramla bay. Tal-Mixta is the one that gives you the postcard of the red sand and your own anchor light.
- Marsalforn and Xlendi: the two seaside villages, salt pans on the Marsalforn side, a narrow inlet and restaurants at Xlendi. Both are shore visits rather than useful anchorages for anything with a keel and a plan.
- Dwejra: the Inland Sea, the Blue Hole and what is left of the Azure Window on the west coast. Spectacular, and firmly a settled-weather-only pilotage exercise if you take the boat there.
- Comino: on the way back to Malta, the Blue Lagoon and Santa Marija bay. Use the eco-moorings where they exist, keep off the seagrass, and expect company.
Crew missions
Captain Ron bottom line
Ramla l-Hamra is one of the loveliest places we anchored all summer and it is also one of the least forgiving. Good sand, plenty of room, and a beach that turns the water the colour of weak tea when the sun gets low. It is also a north-facing bay with nothing in front of it, so the whole stop lives or dies on the forecast holding. Use it in a southerly, watch it like a hawk, keep Mgarr in your back pocket, and when the calm window opens for the Sicily run, take it. We did, at half past four in the morning, and never regretted it once.