You could see it from the faces of those who had never been on one of these trips before: what was all the fuss about? After all, we were off to see birds sitting on the water and then flying to their nests for the night.
Just a few hours later, however, those very same sceptics were promising to return every year, describing the experience as “unforgettable” and “magical”.
Four such trips were held this year by BirdLife and one by its youth arm Falko with the University Students Council (KSU) to watch the Scopoli’s Shearwaters bed-time routine.
All four trips were fully booked.
The boat set off from Marfa for around an hour to Ta’ Ċenċ cliffs but it was only in the last 15 minutes of the trip that you could make out the birds by the dozen swooping down to join hundreds of others already bobbing on the surface – an arrangement known as a raft.
As the boat crept up slowly, at times just 50 metres away, the 60 people on board fell silent as bird after bird flew right by the boat, curious to know who was approaching.
On the horizon, two other rafts had formed – there are 5,000 breeding pairs in Malta – and, for a quarter of an hour, nothing more happened – just the sun blushing ever more furiously as it dipped towards the horizon.
Then, with barely a squawk, one bird spread its metre-wide wings and flew away, its legs seemingly racing across the surface to help it lift off.
For a fraction of a second the others hesitated but, then, one after another they too took off and within seconds hundreds rose simultaneously into the sky, skimming the surface of the water playfully before settling down closer to the cliff where they return to nest each year.
They did this two more times and, by the time they were a few hundred metres from the cliff, the sun was a red orb just ready to disappear, the perfect backdrop for the soaring birds.
They then headed straight for the cliffs in what appeared to be a mass suicide but all found their nests with the slightest tweak of their wings.
Within a minute, there was only the ruffled sea where the raft was to show that they were once there.