Mr Bush may have regretted the lack of back-up venues soon after his arrival, when he met with Dr Fenech Adami and President Ċensu Tabone.
Emerging from the meeting, he glanced through a window at what was, by that time, a lashing storm outside. "I believe it will clear up," he said. He was wrong.
Mr Bush later flew by helicopter to the USS Belknap, his headquarters for the summit and the planned site of the meetings. The 547ft guided missile cruiser was anchored about 1,000 yards offshore in Marsaxlokk.
The storm-lashed seas off Malta meant the much-anticipated summit was hardly going to be plain sailing.
Strong winds and rough sea left the American President stranded aboard his ship in Marsaxlokk Bay, prompting the cancellation of an afternoon session of talks and dinner on board the Soviet ship, which was moored in a calmer position.
According to press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, the ship rolled back and forth so much that dinner dishes at the US President's table went sliding about.
Overnight, the weather got worse. Gale force winds caused waves to explode into plumes of spray that flew 10 metres into the air.
The meeting was soon dubbed the 'Seasick Summit' - it had all the makings of a disaster, but once on board the Soviet cruise ship, Maxim Gorky, the leaders of the two superpowers eventually got down to business.
Condoleezza Rice, then Director for Soviet and East European Affairs at the National Security Council, later said: "Fortunately - or unfortunately - they chose Malta, which turned out to be a really horrible place to be in December. Although the Maltese were wonderful, the weather was really bad.
"Probably the most frightening moments were when you had to leave the Gorky and you had to walk down this plank, with ocean on both sides, winds howling, rain coming right at you and, since I'm not the world's best swimmer, I thought, 'Well, I guess I could die here for my country and no one would ever know it.' The weather was so awful that you couldn't achieve what you wanted to achieve."
As the two leaders entered the card room where the session would be held, Mr Bush said he had enjoyed a good night's sleep on the bouncing Belknap. Later, both he and Secretary of State James Baker were spotted wearing medical seasickness patches behind their ears.