Key takeaways
- The barbecue is not part of the trip. You order it on the boat on the day rather than in advance, and you can perfectly well go without it.
- Halal chicken kebabs with a choice of couscous, pasta salad, green salad and bread, served with a drink.
- You cannot bring your own. That is stated in the conditions and it is standard on a boat that runs its own bar and galley.
- Drinks are bought on board throughout the day and are not included in the trip. The bar is open between and during the anchorages.
What the barbecue actually is
It is a hot meal cooked and served on the boat during one of the anchorages, and it is optional in the real sense: you decide on the day, order aboard, and the boat sails whether you want it or not. It is not bundled into the booking and it is not assumed.
The meal is chicken kebabs, halal, served with a choice from couscous, pasta salad, green salad and bread, and a drink alongside it. That is a straightforward and generous plate for a boat, and it is the same for everyone rather than a menu with options to negotiate.
It is usually served at one of the sheltered anchorages, most often the Crystal Lagoon, which means eating at anchor under cliffs with clear deep water alongside. That setting does a great deal of work, and it is the reason a plate of chicken and salad on a boat is remembered more fondly than the same plate would be anywhere on land.
Whether to bother
Six hours is a long time to be outdoors, swimming, in strong sun. Most people underestimate how hungry that makes them, and the alternative to the barbecue is nothing at all, because outside food is not permitted and the boat does not land anywhere you could buy any.
In traveller accounts of days like this, the barbecue is consistently among the most praised parts of the trip, and the people who skipped it are consistently the ones with a note about being hungry by two in the afternoon. That is a fairly clear pattern.
The counter-argument is if you genuinely do not eat much in heat, or if you have eaten a large breakfast and plan a proper meal ashore afterwards. Both are reasonable. Just make the decision deliberately rather than by forgetting.
Lunch at anchor, with the cliffs on one side and clear water on the other
Why you cannot bring your own
Food and drink from outside are not allowed on board, which is listed in the conditions rather than sprung on anybody at the gangway. It reads as restrictive and it is the normal arrangement anywhere a boat operates its own bar and galley.
There is a practical dimension as well as a commercial one. A boat has limited storage, no refrigeration for passengers' bags, and a deck where everything eventually ends up on the floor or in the sea. Cool boxes and bottles on a crowded catamaran are a genuine nuisance.
The consequence for planning is simply that the boat is your entire food supply for six hours. Decide before you sail whether you are eating on it, because there is no other option once you have left the quay.
Dietary requirements, honestly
The barbecue as described is chicken with a choice of salads, couscous and bread. The chicken is halal, which is worth knowing for anybody who needs it, and the sides are the flexible part of the plate.
A vegetarian could plausibly eat well from the sides alone, but that is an inference rather than a promise. Anybody with a strict requirement, whether vegetarian, vegan, coeliac or an allergy, should ask the operator before booking rather than at the grill.
This matters more than usual precisely because you cannot bring an alternative. On a trip where outside food is not allowed and the boat does not land, an unmet dietary requirement means six hours without eating.
1 drink
The barbecue is served with a drink. Everything else at the bar is bought through the day, and no outside food or drink may be brought aboard.
The bar, and staying hydrated
Drinks are not included in the trip and are bought on board. The bar is part of the character of the boat, which is sold as a lively sailing with music, and it is open through the day rather than only at the anchorages.
Water deserves specific mention. Six hours in Maltese sun, swimming in salt water, is dehydrating in a way that sneaks up on people, and you cannot bring your own bottle. Buying water regularly through the day is the sensible move and worth budgeting for.
The barbecue is served with a drink, which covers part of it. Beyond that it is a normal bar arrangement on a boat where nobody is going anywhere for six hours, and the crew are entirely used to people coming back for water rather than anything stronger.
Timing and how it fits the day
The barbecue lands in the middle of the day at an anchorage rather than under way, which is the right way round: eating on a moving deck is nobody's idea of a good time, and a boat at anchor in a sheltered bay is a stable place to hold a plate.
It also breaks the day into a shape. Swim at the lagoon, sail, eat at the second stop, swim again, sail home. Most people find that rhythm arrives on its own without anybody announcing it.
Afterwards there is usually more swimming, which is a reasonable argument against eating too much, and a considerably better argument for not eating too little. A plate at anchor in the middle of a long day in the sun is the difference between finishing the trip cheerfully and finishing it counting the minutes.
