Mġarr

Mġarr, the harbor on Gozo, serves as more than a point of passage: ferry work connects its residents, and the harbor becomes the point from which Nadia Schembri and Joey Schembri organize Creasy’s rescue after a failed swim toward Comino. The same local familiarity that makes him feel at ease among the ferry workers later helps turn a near-drowning into a shared communal episode.

Ferry harbor and local familiarity

Creasy recognizes the men around the harbor from their work supervising the loading of cars and trucks and collecting fares. Tony, the bartender, remembers him from Guido’s wedding to Julia, introduces his brother Sam and the other regulars, and identifies Michele and Victor as ferry operators when they are not drinking. Creasy is no longer a stranger among them: Tony calls for Joey, who is expected to come down and pick him up, while the easy company lets Creasy relax without facing a round of questions.

The crossing and rescue

During his attempted swim toward Comino, Creasy misjudges the current and abandons the effort to reach the shore near the hotel. The cliffs make continuing east impractical, and the red sand of Ramla Bay appears more than a mile away as he tires. Nadia watches from her bedroom window, sees the current take him, and calls for Joey. They race to Mġarr in a Land Rover, where a fishing boat is preparing to leave. The two Mizzi brothers who own it have been slowed by drinking late at Gleneagles the previous night, but Nadia and Joey board and urgently explain what has happened.

A brightly painted Luzzu finds Creasy exhausted and treading water. He can only wave and try to shout before sinking again; too weak to climb aboard, he is lifted by Joey and the two fishermen. He lies gasping in the scuppers and vomits seawater. On the return to Mġarr, he sits silently in the stern, breathing deeply, while Nadia watches his angry face. The harbor is thus both the point of departure for the rescue and the place to which the rescued swimmer is brought back.

Harbor aftermath and hospitality

Back at the harbor, Creasy asks Joey for five pounds and tries to pay the fishermen, but they refuse: it is too late for another trip out. Instead, they laugh and tease him as the biggest catch of the summer, joking about whether to grill or fry him. The group goes to Gleneagles, where Creasy buys drinks in his swimsuit. Tony serves his remedy for near-drowning, a huge mug of hot, sweet tea with brandy and rum, and makes one for himself; when Victor and Michele arrive from the first ferry run and hear the story, they want to try it too. The joke that the drink is for a bartender or someone half-drowned captures the harbor’s shift from emergency to convivial routine, with rescue absorbed into local hospitality.