Hi all,
Back from a fantastic week of diving in Malta. Myself and Chris Byrne were heading out to do some of the wrecks along with another buddy of ours Nigel who was doing his Tec40. Dive centre was the HIGHLY recommended Techwise / DiveWise in St. Juliens owned by Technical Diver and Instructor Alan Whitehead. Great mix of friendly staff with instructors catering to sidemount, OC trimix, rebreather and so on. Equipment set up is about the best I’ve seen at a dive centre; other than the pile of recreational gear there’s around a dozen twinsets, various stage bottles, and an impressive trimix filling station. Divewise also operate a 9m RHIB + a fleet of vans and pick up trucks for the shore dive sites. Centre is open all year round with 13 or so staff in the summer and 5 or 6 for the rest of the year.
Dives:
Day 1: House Reef (10m).
The centre shares a small peninsula in St. Juliens bay with a large Hotel. The peninsula has no beaches but steps down to the water and onto house reef. Depth here goes from 2m – 20m plus so is ideal for training and snorkelling. We did a long swim from one side of the spit of land back to the dive centre to check weights and adjust to diving in a wetsuits again. Excellent vis (20-30m) and plenty of life – much more than expected. Water temp 26degrees
Day 2: Imperial Eagle (42m)
First wreck dive of the week. Imperial Eagle was an old Gozo – Malta Ferry and sank as an artificial reef a few years back. Wreck is approximately 50m long, upright, intact and cleared of all dangly wires and cables. Plenty of entry points and swim throughs. Access to the engine room still possible through a few twists and turns. Little colder at depth on these dives 17ish on the bottom. Was glad of the semi-dry, but not cold enough to consider bringing the drysuit this time of year.
Faroud (36m)
Quality dive. Sank in 1998 (?) as an artificial reef, the ship was a Libyian oil tanker which was damaged in a fire while in dry dock. Towed to a location near the famous Blue grotto off the south tip of the Island it’s now one of Maltas favourite wrecks. Bit of a hike with the gear down to the waters edge followed by a swim of a hundred metres or so at 6m to the wreck. The ship is broken in two underneath the bridge conveniently separating the huge tanker section of the hull from the 4 storey bridge. Chris and I were acting as models for a very serious GUE team of Lithuanian underwater videographers so had to spend large portions of the dive concentrating on looking deadly. Once they’ve photoshopped us into “Perrfekct trim” I’m sure they might post up the video somewhere. School of Barracuda seen while exiting the wreck. Decompression stops carried out underneath the busy sunbathing spot at the blue grotto. Bikinis overhead very distracting!
Day 3: Bristol Beaufighter + Reel search (38m)
Great dive but once was enough. The Beaufighter was a twin engined fighter bomber that crashed into the sea in 1943 after developing engine trouble. Now lies upside down in 38m with the wings, engines and landing gear intact. Guns still visible, unfortunately the cockpit is underneath and most of the tail is missing. Great visibility, well over 30m! Wreck visible from around 5m. Spent the latter part of the dive (minutes 6 – 30) searching for a Kent Tooling reel lost the day before by an Irish Diver. I’m sworn to secrecy as to the identity of the individual.
HMS Maori (16m)
First dive with an almost qualified Nigel to the Maori. The Maori was a British destroyer that took part in the hunt for Bismark, helped in the evacuation of Norway and ultimately met its faith sailing into Malta during the siege. All that remains now is the front end and is a little silty compared to the deeper wrecks. . In good condition despite laying in Shopping trolley throwing distance from a nearby footpath and in shallow water. Challenged Jason (French /Mexican cave dive instructor) to a “who can fit through the narrowest hole in a wreck; sidemount V twinset challenge”. Despite spending 20 mins doing more damage to the ship with my twinset than the Luftwaffa ever did – Frenchie won the round.
Day 3: Faroud (36m)
Second dive on the Faroud. This time we planned a nice long one to explore the engine room. Entered the ship aft of the broken section and through a hatch beneath the bridge. Being left “diver friendly” prior to sinking most of the nasty doors, cables and loose debris had been removed from the ship so corridors are fairly obstruction free. Staged deco clyinders in the engine room itself and did a brief tour through the gangways and into the toolshop. Engine room is virtually intact with all the usual gauges present but not much room to manoeuvre with 6 divers poking around.
Day 4: Island of Gozo. Inland Sea to the Blue hole and back (40m)
Took the Ferry to Gozo to dive the famous Blue hole. Chose to access the site via the inland sea which is a cool location even for the non diver. The sea has punched a 100m long cave through the cliff wall resulting in a beach behind the cliffs. The cave has an air gap over head big enough to allow boats to pass through. Depth in the cave is around 50m to the sand with crystal clear visibility. Entering the cave we surface swam to around half way before descending to 40m and swimming around to the left towards the Blue hole. The DIR duo were on trimix so were planning a 50m dive which we thought fairly excessive until we saw the huge fish making inverted dive bombing runs from the deep up to around 30m. Large yellow fin tuna and Jacks! Passed Al Wright + student near to the Blue Hole Cavern doing a Sentinenal Mod1 course, epic location for a long rebreather dive! Surfaced through the Blue Hole which is like a large blow hole separated by around 40m from the open water. But of course the first person we see standing there is a freckled Irish Girl with a Kerry Jersey. Fantastic sites to suit almost all levels of divers.
Day 5: P29 Patrol boat (32m)
Finished off the week dicking around the P29. Our dive guide was bringing our Lithuanian GUE friends to see both the P29 and the Tugboat Rozi on one long dive. Both wrecks are a shore dive 100m or so in 32m of water from shore and separated by around 70m. Not being too arsed with swimming for an hour to see an old tug boat we decided to concentrate on the P29. The P29 was an ex East-German / Maltese patrol boat around 60m in length. Sank only in around 2002 it’s about as fresh a wreck as I’ve dived with not much growth or life on it. Plenty of access holes have been cut prior to sinking so the ship is fairly safe even when exploring inside. Most compartments have multiple exits and only the radio equipment room was without natural light. Great dive and an other pleasant decompression ascending up along the nearby reef.
Exellent location, fantastic centre and great craic. It was our first Malta trip, so happy to dive some of the classic sites. Looking forward to heading back hopefully next year with some voodoo gas to head a few of the deeper sites.
All the best,
Cathal
