He is known as Baħħar for a good reason and Diary of a Maltese Circumnavigator, a book to be released soon, will trace the adventures of veteran skipper Joseph Schembri.

The self-penned book tells the story of Schembri’s exploits during his 14 years adventuring around the world, including sailing from Australia to Malta and back again some years later.

Throughout his extraordinary voyages, he sailed through the Suez and Panama canals, visited tropical islands, battled 20-metre-high waves and was even shot at by bandits off the coast of Columbia, all the while demonstrating the unerring skill and daring curiosity that has propelled those brave few to have attempted such perilous expeditions.

Schembri was born in 1938 in Naxxar and describes feeling an affinity for the sea from a young age. At 15, he joined the army, staying for 10 years. His career took him to Libya, where he narrowly escaped death when a plane he was scheduled to be on crashed on take-off.

This stroke of luck appears prophetic when viewed in the context of Schembri’s later adventures, which included an encounter with an unsavoury policeman in Port Sudan, hitting an iceberg while travelling on a Norwegian freighter, making peace with knife-wielding assailants and almost losing his son, Stephen, to the sea during a violent storm.

Australia

The book begins in Australia, where Schembri, his wife Connie and their three children ‒ Stephen, Patrick and Joe Junior ‒ had moved to in 1973, following over 20 years living in Canada and the US and visiting various European countries.

In Sydney he first discovered his love of sailing.

“I had become obsessed with the idea of taking on the challenge of living aboard my own yacht,” he recounts.

“It would be a whole new experience for me and my family, and when I asked my wife and the kids what they thought about this new life, they were just as keen as I was.”

Following a fruitless search to purchase a boat, Schembri made the ambitious decision to build his own, which took him two-and-half years.

This first vessel, a 16-metre long steel ketch (a two-masted sailboat), named Baħħar, would take Schembri and his family first round the east coast of Australia and, two years later, on their first long distance voyage.

The Baħħar II, later shipwrecked in Salina Bay due to fire.

Journey to Malta

On June 10, 1983, the Schembris left Sydney harbour for Malta. This first voyage to Malta proved a struggle for Schembri’s wife and his late son, Joe Junior, who disembarked in Townsville, Queensland, due to seasickness.

“The Baħħar finally entered Valletta harbour in August 1984, having sailed approximately 19,000 kilometres around the world.”

Schembri would return to Australia by boat in 1997, though, this time, with a crew.

“Connie had suffered terribly with seasickness,” he explained, and their sons had married upon returning to Malta, leaving Schembri to undertake this second long-distance voyage without his family.

“It was nearly midnight of that late July evening when we sailed into Sydney Harbour. The harbour from which I had set out 14 years earlier to sail around the world on a cruising yacht that I and my family had built in Sydney... fulfilling my dream, which had become a reality.”

Schembri sold the Baħħar in Australia, an experience he describes in the book as “painful”, before later purchasing a trimaran he named Baħħar II.

Schembri’s time with this yacht was sadly to be cut short after it shipwrecked at Salina Bay, in Malta, on November 18, 2001, after succumbing to fire.

“I loved that boat,” he said.

Final thoughts

The book is a testament to Schembri’s bravery, the boldness of the Maltese spirit and its affinity for the sea and, most importantly, the limitless potential of the human spirit.

It is a sobering fact that the world is inevitably getting smaller as

the pace of technological advancement marches steadily on.

It is all the more important, perhaps, to celebrate the adventures of those, like Schembri, who, in their desire for challenge and discovery, reveal as much about ourselves as the vast frontiers they so bravely explore.

Diary of a Maltese Circumnavigator will soon be available from local bookstores and libraries.