Sunseekers in Malta

by Steve Jones

For this, our first shore based foreign group trip, Dave Appleby had proposed a trip to Malta, an area that he was quite familiar with, having dived there on many occasions. The participants on this trip were: Dave Appleby, John Eason, Digs, Rob Hampton, Daniel Taylor, Sheila Bannister, Maria Kjellen & Steve Jones. Each person made their own travel arrangements and by some minor miracle all arrived at the chosen destination which was the Vista Apartments, owned by Subway Scuba in Bugibba. We were left to our own devices for the week and had hired a luxury minibus and jeep, the latter vehicle was unfortunately deficient in the brake department. The lack of brakes meant that the emergency stopping distance was marginally shorter that that of an oil tanker, this however did not daunt John, who took this as a personal challenge to his abilities.

Day One
Dive One
Location: Cirekawwa, Reef Dive, Run Time: 38 minutes, Max Depth: 24.5, Buddy: Dave Appleby This was planned as a gentle warm up dive to test out the kit and get the weight belt correct etc. The first thing that was noticeable was the wide variety of dive suits on display, ranging from a couple of dry suits to a shortie. (who can this mad person be?) The plan was to cap the dive at 18 metres, but as we were all hovering around at the prescribed depth, the dive leader (no names) dropped over the shelf and the lemmings all followed him down to 24.5 metres. Quite a few fish to see, unfortunately as they had no labels attached, like they do in the books, I have absolutely no idea what they were. One of the main points of this dive was to show us the exit area, not only for this dive, but for the afternoon dive. I could have sworn that my buddy was paying attention, anyway see the next dive report for details on that fiasco.  

Dive Two
Location: Cirekawwa, Wreck of Rozi, Run Time: 37 minutes, Max Depth: 31.5, Buddy: Maria Kjellen The Rozi is a 30 metre tugboat that was scuttled in 1992 as an attraction for the tourist submarine that operated at that time. She sits on a sandy bottom at a depth of 34 metres. Reverse profile??? No it must be a typo. Quite a long swim out to this wreck, a tugboat, and obviously should have done it at a shallower depth as I only had 10 minutes of NST left when we arrived. So we spent the time exploring the wheelhouse. Strangely when we discussed this wreck later on in the week, no one could remember any details of it. Then came the return leg of the swim, remember the channel which led to the exit point? Well due to some amazing navigation by my buddy, we missed it completely and eventually thought that we should surface to get our bearings. Imagine our surprise to find that we had a surface swim of approximately 500 metres.
At the end of the day Sheila was spotted by Digs and Rob in the town. She was reading her book and moving from seat to seat to catch the last of the sun's rays. Thus earning her the name of "the human sundial".

Day Two
Dive Three
Location: Wied iz Zurrieq, Wreck: um el Faroud, Run Time: 51 minutes, Max Depth: 25.5, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
This oil tanker was scuttled on 2nd September 1998, 3 years after an explosion in .Valetta harbour in which 9 dockyard workers were killed. She now sits upright on the bed at 35 metres (25 metres to the deck) and is 110 metres long and 16 metres wide.
To start we needed to surface swim across the inlet where the small boats were ferrying passengers along the coast. From here we dropped down to 8 metres and followed the reef along until it was time to swim out to the wreck. Quite a longish swim, about 10 minutes from the time that we dropped down. Had a look around the wheelhouse area and down to the main deck. Then when our NST had run out ascended to the top of the funnel at 14 metres (large shoal of fish in this area which were the subject of the attention of about 6 large barracuda), from where we headed back to the reef to the entry/exit point.

Dive Four
Location: St Elmo’s Bay, Wreck: HMS Maori, Run Time: 42 minutes, Max Depth: 14.0, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
The Maori was a 1,870 tonnes Tribal Class Destroyer. She was 115 metres long and 11 metres wide. She was sunk by enemy fire on 12th February 1942, without loss of life. This happened in the Grand Harbour at Valetta. At first she was a shipping hazard, however through various salvage operations she is now very broken with only the fore part of the wreck at this location, the rest was sunk in deeper water. Apparently there are still live shells to be found in the vicinity of the wreck. To get to this dive site required us to drive through Valetta, more precisely, though the industrial estate. What I really cannot understand is why Dave took us through there 3 times, surely he wasn't lost? We did this in 2 teams. The first ones out marked the wreck with a DSMB so all we had to do was surface swim out and drop right onto it. A nice easy dive which is well broken up. There are some short swim throughs but the main one along the wreck is heavily silted. We saw lots of tube worms on the wreck and also saw a couple of flatties which we later identified as brill.

Day Three
Dive Five
Location: Qawra point, Wreck: Imperial Eagle, Run Time: 26 minutes, Max Depth: 35.5, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
The Imperial Eagle used to be a 45 metre long passenger ferry operating between Malta and Gozo, and was later converted for the purpose of carrying cars. She was scuttled on 19th July 1999 and has come to rest on a sandy bottom at 38 metres. This was our first boat dive of the week. We eventually found the permanent buoys which rose to within 2 or 3 metres of the surface, and then tied off onto them. At the bottom of the line at approx 35 metres is a huge statue of Jesus. Moving North along the reef the ship soon comes into sight and we came up slightly to get to deck level. At this point I only had 10 minutes of NST left and had I known the wreck better I would have come off the shot line earlier and approached from a higher level. As we got to the stern my buddy indicated on 4 minutes of NST left so we turned round to head back to the, by now, very crowded shot line. Last back on the boat were Digs and Rob, with Digs making comments about the algorithm on Rob's Vyper, which seemed to want to do a safety stop even when wiped with a damp cloth.

Dive Six
Location: Comino, Reef dive in cave complex, Run Time: 51 minutes, Max Depth: 12.5, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
Prior to setting off in the RIB Sheila managed to drop her computer in the water, Daniel was volunteered to kit up and go in after it. Barry the boat handler remarked that with his long hose Daniel could have left his gear on the RIB and been surface fed. On this dive the local fish community were treated to the remains of someone’s lunch. This was, I hasten to point out, delivered from a plastic bag, and not through a regulator. After this we all split off to examine the reef and the caves. On one of these swim throughs four of us were about 30 metres in when we met a group of divers from another boat coming the other way. The first instinct of the leading pair was to swim right through us, but they then seemed to panic as they attempted to do a u turn in the cave. Fortunately we spotted a branch off and managed to pass by them. After exiting the cave we had a general tour around before making our way back to the shot, not too difficult to see, given the great viz. Somehow however Daniel managed to surface on the wrong side of the island, and had quite a surprise to find that there were no dive boats in sight.

  Day Four
Dive Seven
Location: Anchor Bay, Reef dive and cave, Run Time: 48 minutes, Max Depth: 8.0, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
The bay is in a small cove which is overlooked by the set which was built for the film Popeye. En route to this site the roads are quite eneven, as they are throughout Malta. So when the Maltese authorities put a sign up to warn you that there are bumps in the road you had better pay attention. Something which John and Digs failed to do. Their excuse...."the sign was facing the wrong way"
As with every other dive the reef wall and floor is covered with lots of sea urchins, and care needs to be taken. At the far point of the dive we went into a cave for 30 or so metres. Further along there is a place where one can surface, but we were already beyond the proposed dive time so we turned around before reaching this point. On the return leg of the dive Maria spotted a moray eel in one of the holes.

Dive Eight
Location: Cirekawwa, Reef dive and group pic, Run Time: 41 minutes, Max Depth: 19.5, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
Looks like another typo, otherwise the reader could be misled into thinking that this was another reverse profile. We did this dive primarily to get our group photo done, (see above) upon entering the water we were given “handy tip number one” from the photographer. Apparently if you spit into your mask before you begin the dive, then the mask will not mist up. Isn’t it amazing what you can learn on dive trips? After the pic was taken we dropped down to look at the statue of the Madonna. This is neither the singer, nor the fallen one with the big boobies. Close to this area Maria again saw a moray eel, guess what…I missed it again. However on the swim back to the exit point (which we found this time to avoid another 500 metre surface swim) we saw an octopus.

Dive Nine
Location: St Elmo’s Bay, Night Dive to wreck of HMS Maori, Run Time: 38 minutes, Max Depth: 14.0, Buddy: Maria Kjellen
Again as with the day dive we did this in 2 waves, with the first pair attaching a DSMB to the wreck with a crack light attached. So 4 of us simply surface swam out to the buoy and dropped down the line. The dive was somewhat disappointing as there was not a lot to see. Several sea hares and stone fish and scorpion fish were around the wreck and on the reef on the way back to the exit point.

  Day Five
Dive Ten
Location: Wied iz Zurrieq, Wreck: um el Faroud, Run Time: 49 minutes, Max Depth: 26.0, Buddy: Sheila Bannister
Second trip this week to this wreck. The difference this time was that we took a different bearing and therefore shortened the swim from the reef out to the wreck. As with the first dive there were lots of fish to see before ascending up to the funnel for the return leg. My only comment on this excellent wreck is its distance from the shore which results in a round trip needing approx 80 to 90 bar of air which could be better employed on the wreck itself.

Dive Eleven
Location: Wied iz Zurrieq, Reef dive, Run Time: 34 minutes, Max Depth: 25.5, Buddy: Sheila Bannister
Two of the group decided to visit the el Faroud again, while the rest of us explored the reef to the other side of the inlet. There was quite a lot of surge on this dive and not really very much to see. There were a couple of small swim throughs, but given the surge and the fact that the walls were covered on urchins, I declined these.
At some point while packing all the kit away someone mentioned foreplay, can’t remember why. This reminded me of an old joke and I casually remarked "what is the Australian definition of foreplay" answer "Brace yourself Sheila". My buddy Sheila, then pointed out that her current partner was indeed Australian.  Oops big hole, open up please.

Day Six
Dive Twelve
Location: Zonqor Point, Wrecks St Michael & 10, Run Time: 51 minutes, Max Depth: 21.0, Buddy: Rob Hampton
These 2 tug boats were scuttled on 16th May 1998 and are 10 metres and 16 metres long respectively. Their original role was to tow boats around Grand Harbour in Valetta until they were made redundant and were left moored and partly submerged. After a clean up operation to make them safe they were relocated to the current site to act as a reef to hopefully attract fish to the area.
The more observant of you will by this time realise that I have managed 4 different buddies this week. Was it something that I said?
There was an interesting swim to the wreck over the reef where for the first time this week I saw a moray eel, even if it was a baby one. Lots of other life especially sea cucumbers. We decided to explore the front tug first which had several swim throughs and an easily accessible engine room, with a scorpion fish close to the hatchway. Then on to the second of the tugs which was quite disappointing in comparison. Dropped into the wreck but nothing in there except rotting vegetation.

Summary
A very enjoyable trip and thanks must be given to Dave Appleby without whom this trip would not have taken place, and John would not have discovered the joys of sleeping in the lounge after sharing a room with Dave for only a couple of hours before realising that Malta was not experiencing an earthquake, but that it was Dave’s version of snoring.
A couple of awards this week go to:
Worst navigation: Maria Kjellen, for making me do a 500 metre surface swim.
Best navigation: Rob Hampton, whose map reading was excellent, on the days when Dave & John were unavailable.
Least food consumed during the week: John Eason, to quote him “eating’s cheating”
Most alcohol consumed: same again.
Fastest trip between the 2 dive centres, with 16 cylinders on board (8.5 minutes, beating the previous best of 10.5 minutes), John again.
We didn't have a kit loss/damage award on this trip but Digs & Rob win the award for best attempt at burning down the apartment. This happened when the kettle boiled dry, the lid and handle melted and filled the kitchen with black smoke, leaving a substantial residue over the walls. So to Digs & Rob goes the Emperor Nero award for fiddling while the apartment burns. 

Steve Jones Clear Viz