Scuba Works Malta
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A summer of deep and long diving

Hola Peeps

Apologies for the delayed scubaworksmalta.com dive reports… We have been diving, honest occifer!

It gets a tad busy in the peak season (allegedly & apparently) – my excuse and I am going to stick to it.

A very good report was submitted and approved by the scubaworksmalta.com team, for Le Polynesien which was dived on Sunday 1 August.A World Class Dive, one of many in the waters around the Maltese Islands.

Blimey where has 2010 gone? August already!This last week was a bit cooler, temperature wise – it has been stinking hot and humid (yes I know where to find sympathy… [in the dictionary between s**t & Sy******s]).

So with batteries refreshed, flight plans submitted etc., etc. he who can not be named is back at the keyboard.

Though, I am now thinking I may in fact be Harry F. Potter – a new twist in the story!?

Anyway enough about me… (or is it him?)

First up: 11 July – St. Elmo’s Harbour Wall

The promise of an interesting rummage dive and rumours of a wreck got the brave few of us all out of bed this Sunday. Well, not too early! Something rings true about mad dogs and Englishmen… and Danes, Latvians etc., etc.

An interesting bit of transport logistics was required to get the gear as close to the dive site entrance as possibe… Thanks Bent!

Having avoided the boats taking the shortcut into the harbour under the bridge destroyed in WWII, we went along the outer wall. Not quite sure how this was constructed – it seemed to be a perfectly flat bottom and the harbour wall seemed to be just placed perfectly upon it! Not too sure how they managed to scrape a perfectly flat strip, underwater and “dropped” the sections of breakwater onto it!?

No sign of a a wreck and interestingly it did not seem to get too deep off the wall – Bent scootered off into the “depths” with his scooter and had to go quite some distance to get any real depth.

Having rounded the far end and heading back on the inner wall we found more “wreckage” and a huge flying gurnard. What life we found was clearly not accustomed to divers!

A very nice dive – I would like to do it again in the winter months when the water is clearer and there is not as much growth covering the bottom as I am sure there is a lot of “stuff” to be found…

Watch this space

Round two: 25 July – 3 Wrecks, Gozo

Another Sunday in paradise… so off to Gozo we go!

Not too sure where else you can do 3 wrecks on a single easy dive.

OK – I know I am going to get loads of comments on this! Define easy. Define 3 wrecks. Define “dive”… Whatever!

Starter for 10 – Bermuda: Constellation, Montana and Lartington!

Here we have 3 old ferries, one upside down, in a row at about 40m. 1 to 2 minute swim between them. Clear, warm water, no current.

Usual scubaworksmalta.com dive plan – GO DIVE!!! General plan was Xlendi first, not too often visited as upside down and advised not too enter it… Swimming through the car deck, on CCR and Trimix, is awesome! Looking down at light fittings and fire sprinklers and seeing a NO SMOKING sign, with the smoke going down? Narked? Er, No, in an upside down wreck

Not for everyone and at your own risk.

Then over to the Karwela – sadly “Herbie” has more or less rusted away. Shortly after she was scuttled some wags desecrated (in some “persons” eyes) the wreck by placing an old VW Beetle bodyshell, with pink carpeted wheel arches and “topical paintwork”…

Yes, first time I saw it, I thought to myself, “so this is what being narked is all about…”, then I swam into it!

The Karwela is a great dive – in its own right! It is prepared for divers, has an interesting rudder and prop configuration and the stairways are awesome.

At this point it was probably planned to be time to return to shore… but even the bubbleblowers were up for a wee trip to the Comino Land!

A very atmospheric dive this one. An older vessel, with a blunt straight bow, like the Titanic. The Karwela is curved… The Xlendi is confused as she has two bows or is two sterns?

And then it was time to head for the shallows and the deco accumulated for having had such an amazing dive on the 3 wreck of Gozo. Not really a hardship as the water is warm and there is lots to see.

Then it was off to our favourite restaurant agin – this time I have the name for you: Xerri il-Bukkett.

The food – mainly pizza’s for us hungry divers – the service and the views were all as excellent as ever.

Another wonderful scubaworksmalta.com dive day.

And bang up to date (oops): 8 August – Schnellboot (S31)

She hit her own mine, blew up and sank.

Amazing – for all 8 divers this was the first time on this wreck!

Nobody knew what to expect – so many different “stories”. Divers are worse than fishermen…

Well, for those on air it was good to know it was 65m and not the 70m+ that was talked about. Not too sure what happened to the intact mahogany decking…

Anyway, an awesome dive. The lucky ones saw a massive moray eel… Torpedo tubes, loaded… clumps of ammo, a massive frying pan! The chef must have been huge and I bet nobody complained about the food!

So scubaworksmalta .com has gone seriously TEK in August! Amazing dives on the Poly and S31 – as we pros refer to them…

Our skipper Owen (and Santa Clause) are excellent and take no prisoners!!!

A very enjoyable few dives of late.

Just do not rely on scubaworksmalta.com to find you a seahorse, let alone two!! Apart from that, excellent group of divers and apart from temporarily misplacing a stage cylinder (it is down there… somewhere) no major faux pas to be gleefully reported ;-(

Well next weekend scubaworksmalta.com are hoping to go to Southwold! I would rather go diving… or am I missing the point?

So I need to sign off (thank goodness for that I hear you cry…) as I need to find my passport.

Tags: Deep diving, Diving in Gozo, Diving in Malta, Gozo best dive sites, Karwela, Malta best dive sites, Schnellboot S31, Trimix, Xlendi

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