The main port in Malta (via Creative Commons).

A chartered boat carrying several U.S. citizens and embassy workers arrived in Malta Friday after a delayed departure from Libya. 

The catamaran, which carried at least 167 Americans, could not leave Tripoli as scheduled on Wednesday due to rough waters and high seas. U.S. State Department Spokesperson P.J. Crowley said his office is doing everything they can to assist U.S. citizens in leaving Libya.

USA Today reports:

"The ferry carrying American and international citizens from Libya to Malta is finally under way," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley tweeted this morning. It later arrived in Malta, a small Mediterranean island, with all passengers safe.

Greece and Turkey had been able to evacuate citizens earlier by using bigger boats that could better handle choppy seas, but Crowley said any questions about why the U.S. did not send a larger boat are now moot.

"It is very difficult to know at this point how many Americans still remain," Crowley said. "They are getting out through a variety of means. Companies are also chartering transportation to evacuate workers. Some Americans are included in these movements."

Malta officials said that rough seas made several passengers seasick on the approximately eight-hour journey. The main highway on the island country remains closed for emergency vehicles.

The State Department said roughly 6,000 U.S. citizens were in Libya at the time the protests broke out, most of whom have dual citizenship. Though some have left the country, the U.S. suspended all embassy operations in Libya Friday to allow all American diplomats to leave the country.

Americans have also tried to escape the capital by airplane, but some U.S.-based charter flights have been denied the right to land. Other foreigners arriving in Malta and Turkey have described the scene in Tripoli’s airport as chaotic.

The New York Times reported:

The scramble by foreigners to leave the country began several days ago, but the number of commercial flights could not keep up with demand. Many countries have been mobilizing military and chartered ships and planes.

After landing in Malta on a flight chartered by the British government, Sam Dewhirst from Leeds who had been teaching English in Libya, described the situation in the Tripoli airport as “hellish.”

As a sign of the makeshift nature of operations at the Tripoli airport, Mr. Dewhirst held up what he had been given as a boarding card: An invitation to a reception at the British ambassador’s residence in Tripoli. “That is not an invitation I’ll be taking any time soon,” he said dryly.

While he and other Britons had been able to “jump the queue,” he said, scores of North Africans were still waiting to leave or had abandoned their suitcases on the tarmac in a mad scramble to get on flights. “It was heartbreaking,” he said.

With American citizens and diplomats now leaving the country, the United States plans to impose further sanctions on Libya.