Newsgroups: bit.listserv.scuba-l
Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 16:46:29 +0100
From:         Han Weegink <weegink@ICT.NL>
Subject:      Malta/Gozo/Comino trip report (LONG)

Hi there,

I finally found the time to write down something about diving in
Malta/Gozo/Comino. Just FYI, these are 3 of 5 islands, which
form the Republic of Malta, in the Mediterranean, somewhere
between Sicily and Tunesia.

General Info :
--------------

I have been in Malta in september 1992. More precisely, I've been
on Malta, Gozoand Comino. The other islands Cominetto and Filfla
are very small, not really interesting Malta used to be British
until ~1967. Languages spoken are Malti (a mixture of 80% arabic,
10% italian an 10% english and others) and English. There are lots
of things to see, rangin from cathedrals (try Valetta, the capital)
to prehistoric sites (e.g. temples of Hagar Qim). The country side
is very, very dry, since there are no rivers on the islands, just
some wadis (sp?). Hotels are excellent, people are friendly.
Temperature was approx. 32C, surface water temp. varying between
25 and 28C, on deep dives *a lot* colder B-(.


Divecenters:
------------

A lot. I dove with Divewise, St-Julian, Malta. They have a very
good reputation, but are not among the cheapest. They have lots
of equipment (>50 10liter tanks, >50 15 liter tanks, regs, depth
gauges, stab jackets, weights, etc.etc.) which you can rent or buy
(some items are quite cheap on Malta, e.g. divecomputers). Equipment
is mostly in excellent condition. Off course, you can also bring
your own.

They have a very fast boat (55 knots !!!), the kind they use for water
skiing. This boat takes you to the reefs and wrecks nearby. They also
charter a large boat, which is used for the trips to the other islands.
Then there are 2 pickups, a jeep and two vans, for shore dives on Malta
and Gozo.

They have 6 and 12 divepacks, individual dives, courses (BSAC and PADI).
After an orientation dive, my girlfriend and I did the PADI-AOW, and
six additional dives. AOW is approx. $200, including all equipment and
transportation. 6 dives is about the same, 12 is a bit cheaper,
relatively. Groups are 6 students/1 divemasters maximum. Boats are never
crowded, organization is good.

Other divecenters: Maltaqua, Suncrest, etc. on Malta, there is also at
least one on Gozo, none on the other islands.


The real stuff:
---------------

Dive 1: St-Julian       32' 45 min 'first dive, easy dive'

Just warming up, not a very spectacular dive, but good enough to
check out the equipment, my buddy, the divemaster and myself.
Lots of fish, but mostly small ones; Blennies, Gobies,
Turkish and Rainbow Wrasses,

Dive 2: Fessej Rock     120' 40 min 'how to get narced'

AOW Deep dive. We took the large boat from Malta. A lot of wind,
so waves were high. The crossing of the channel between Malta
and Gozo took us more than 1 hour, but the skies were blue, so
who cares? BTW, they boat is large enough for 20 divers, usually
doing 2 tank dives.
Fessej Rock, just off the south coast of Gozo, rises like a church
tower from ~300fsw to 60 above sea level. It is great to circle the
rock at various depths, large rock formations, caves.
Many larger fishes can be seen here, groupers, bonitos.
Thermocline at 60'. Below that depth, COLD B-(. Visibility 90'
Several divers were experiencing the effects of nitrogen narcosis,
myself included. The divemaster, Richard, could have paid some more
attention since most members of the group, it was either the first
or the deepest deep dive, so you can expect nitrogen narcosis and
bouyancy problems.

Dive 3: Gharmieri Caves 35' 45 min 'caves, caves, caves'

AOW Boat Dive. North coast of Comino. Lots of caves, some opening
to small inland waters. An abundance of fish. This is an excellent
spot to feed them (don't take sea urchins, use bread or hard-boiled
eggs). I have taken pictures where the diver doing the feeding is
completely covered by fish. Many groupers in the caves, especially
the darker caves, so bring torches. In some caves, there is silt on
the bottom, so visibility can easily be reduced to zero.

Dive 4: Wied-Iz-Zurrieq 80' 31 min 'catch or be caught'

AOW Multilevel Dive. South coast of Malta. Translated, the name
means wadi of Zurrieq, which is a small fisherman's port. Watch
out for fishing lines here!!!. Saw some large tuna fish, which
fled the moment they saw us. Near the town there are some car
wrecks at 30'.

Dive 5: Marfa Point. 80' 25 min 'the problem dive'

AOW Night Dive. Dive with some problems. First the divemaster,
Richard, got caught in a fishing line. At 70' we saw some octopi.
Richard started playing with one of them, wrapping the octopus
onto his mask. Quite a funny sight, but when he did the same with
one of the students, the student panicked and lost his mask. This
wasn't really a problem but for the fact that it took some time to
recover the mask. IMHO, someone's first night dive isn't the best
moment to try out this kind of exercises.
Later on, we saw lots of starfish in all kinds of colors, and some
beautiful Flying Gurnards. They were attracted by our lights at first,
so we could take a good look at these creatures, which look more
like birds than fish.
After 25 minutes, at 30', one of the students in the group started
having buoyancy problems, due to the increased buoyance of the tank.
She started ascending, which she noticed too late (it was a night dive,
so orientation was difficult) and surfaced. My buddy and I noticed her
ascent, and thought she had problems. After warning the divemaster
(who, BTW, hadn't noticed anything) we all aborted the dive.

Dive 6: Marfa Point     90' 32 min 'submarine encounter'

AOW Navigation Dive. Did a lot of exercises using the compass. Visited
a recently sunk ship (on purpose, for the divers and for tourists on
board Captain Morgans' submarine; the only thing they see is divers,
since they scare the fish from miles away.)
A good dive, with another dive master, Miles (execellent diver, knew
a lot about fish, also a very good instructor)

Dive 7: HMS Maori wreck 40' 35 min 'wreck diving'

Right in front of the harbour of Valetta, an old world war II wreck.
Broken in two, some parts have been removed for safety. You can swim
right through some of the ship. Lots of fish, completely different
species than the ones we saw on the other dives. The divemaster told
us they sometimes see seahorses on the wreck.
There are other wrecks nearby, but this one is best preserved. There
are also some wreck of WW-II airplanes, but I haven't seen them
personally.

Dive 8: Marfa Point 95' 48 min 'the magic of night diving'

Another night dive. Same location as the other night dive, but another dive
 master, Tonio. He turned out to be the best diver AND instructor. Unlike most
 of the divemasters, who were British, he was from Malta, and knew every inch of
 the Malktese Islands, above and below sealevel. This time, we saw seacucumbers
 (aka seapr*cks on Malta), giant starfish, flying gurnards, several rays,
 scorpion fish. Tonio showed use things in the underwater world, we never
 noticed before, while in the meantime paying a lot of attention to the divers
 and the reef. He even picked up the scorpion fish, very gently, to show it to
 us, after which he put he right back in the same spot. I guess the fish must
 have been asleep for it was very calm.

Another great thing, BIO-LUMINESCENCE. For those of you who have not yet
 experienced this, it's amazing. You switch off all lights and wave your hands
 through the water. A trail of sparks seems to come from your hands.


Dive 9:  Fessej Rock 110' 53min 'Deep & Cold'

Found some nice shells and saw some bonitos and groupers.


Dive 10: Crystal Lagoon  35' 68min 'Moray time'

South side of Comino, right next to the Blue Lagoon. Extremely blue water.
 There's some sort of tunnel which leads to the other side of a large rock
 formation. This is the home of the morays. The first time I saw one I though is
 was a piece of wood sticking out from underneath a rock. When I swam right over
 it and saw a row of teeth and two very nasty looking eyes, I knew it was
 something else B-)
At the entry and exit of the tunnel, there are a lot of anemones.

Dive 11: Mtahleb 90' 62min 'blood, sweat and ... scuba'

South coast of Malta. Only to be reached by jeep. A trail leeds down the cliffs
 which are over 200' high here. Ascending/Descending the trail fully equipped at
 35 degrees celcius was not exactly my idea but the dive made it worthwhile.
 First a lot of car wrecks (probably stolen and pushed off the cliffs), than a
 lot of caves, tunnels. At some spot in the wall, there's are large cave with a
 fresh water well inside. Where salt and fresh water mix, everything looks
 fuzzy.
Again, lots of groupers and some birdfish.

Dive 12: Delimara point 80' 49min 'goodbye Malta'

The far east coast of Malta. A large reef some 150' off the coast. Lots
of fish, but nothing spectacular. Someone in the group had a buddy who
thought he was making a trip on is own, not staying with his buddy,
stirring up sand when people try to take pictures, unneccessarily touching
the reef, etc. BTW, Whats the handsignal for 'you are very very irritating'?
Nevertheless a good dive, and during the trip by van to the dive site you
see a lot of the island.

Concluding remarks:
-------------------
Got my PADI-AOW, YES!. Learned a lot about diving, what to do and
especially what not to. Also learned that there are divemasters who
are exellent divers but poor instructors. After some complaints, we
switched divemasters and all followingdives were excellent (thanks Tonio,
we owe you). DiveWise diveservices has good equipment and organization is
perfect. The variety in diving was great, lots of fish although not with
the abundance of colors you see in the more tropical environments.
Good value for money.

For more information, read the book by Arnt Roediger, 'Tauchreisefuehrer
Malta' ~ 'diving guide for Malta'. It's written in German, but is has
very good descriptions of most dive sites. The author himself dove with
Divewise before writing the book.

Thats all folks,

Han Weegink
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