I’ve already published a post describing the history of the Rozi, and the technicalities (such as they are) of getting in and out when you want to dive the wreck. The adjacent dive site is the wreck of the P29, which lies closer to Susie’s Pool. The second time we dived her we eschewed the walkway (on entry, at least), and did a giant stride – very exciting – underneath the Cirkewwa lighthouse.
The lighthouse at Cirkewwa
Entry point for the Rozi at Cirkewwa
Swimming out along the wall to the Rozi
Divemaster Publio strikes out to sea
Tony swims towards the wreck of the Rozi
Approaching the stern of the Rozi
Moray eel in the shallow water on the way to Susie’s Pool after the dive
Tony and I were charmed by the age of the Rozi – she was built over 50 years ago – and that she is so intact. We have many wrecks in the Cape, but most of them are younger ships or far more broken up.
Bridge of the Rozi (from below)
Tony on the Rozi
Close up of the bumper on the bow of the Rozi
The bow of the Rozi
Funnel of the Rozi
Funnel, base of the mast and bridge of the Rozi
Tony inside the wheelhouse
Divemaster Sergey sitting on top of the bridge of the Rozi
Here’s another selection of pictures I took on the two dives we did on the Rozi. Our Divemaster for the second dive on the vessel (and the last dive of our 10 dive package) was a Maltese Instructor called Publio. We were delighted to meet a Maltese diver (and in fact fellow Maltese divers Stephanie and Joseph joined us for another dive we did that day). Publio and Tony had a good chat about the joys and woes of being a diving instructor, and it seems to be the same in Malta as it is in South Africa. If you want to know how that is, you’ll have to ask Tony!
Bridge of the Rozi
Tony swimming away from the wreck
Cable drum on the deck of the Rozi
Hatch in the deck
Wheelhouse of the Rozi
Tony in front of the funnel
Dive date: 6 August 2011
Air temperature: 31 degrees
Water temperature: 20 degrees
Maximum depth: 34.0 metres
Visibility: 30 metres
Dive duration: 60 minutes
Towards the stern of the Rozi, fender still in place
The curving hull of the Rozi
Bow of the Rozi
From some angles the Rozi looks as though it’s still a working ship
Winch drum on the Rozi
Storage compartments on the deck
Deck in front of the bridge
Looking up at the bridge, mast in the background
Bow of the Rozi
Rudder at the stern
Tony filming something in shallow water
Divers below us at Cirkewwa
Tony returns up the limestone wall at the end of the dive
The tugboat Rozi was built in Bristol, England in 1958. She was launched as Rossmore and a decade later was sold and renamed Rossgarth. In 1972 she was sold to Mifsud Brothers (Malta Ship Towage) Ltd. She thus sailed from Liverpool to Malta to be registered. In 1981 she was sold to Tug Malta and her name was changed to Rozi. She operated in the Grand Harbour, Valetta.
Mast of the Rozi, surrounded by fish
Looking up at the bridge of the Rozi
Heading towards the bow of the Rozi
Bream and damselfish pass in front of the funnel of the Rozi
Wheelhouse and base of the mast
The stern of the Rozi, with rudder
The stern of the Rozi
Looking down the port side of the Rozi towards the bow
The mast is located behind the bridge
The bow of the Rozi from above
Doors and windows have been removed to facilitate penetration of the wheelhouse
In 1992 she was sold to Captain Morgan Cruises, the ubiquitous (at least in Malta) party boat and adventure company, and was scuttled off the northwest of Malta at Cirkewwa, where the car ferries travelling to and from Gozo dock. She was placed there as an attraction for tourists visiting the area in a small tourist submarine (with windows, obviously).
The stern of the Rozi
The beautiful Rozi is now lying intact except for her engines and propeller. She lies upright in about 34 metres of water. Nearby lies the wreck of the patrol boat called P29.
Tony behind the rudder of the Rozi
Tony swims away from the stern
The wreck is very intact with railings, winch drums and walkways still present
Near the stern you can drop inside the wreck (big thermocline!) – to the left in this photo
The funnel of the Rozi
The starboard side of the Rozi disappears into the blue
View from the bow of the Rozi
Start of a walkway down the port side of the Rozi
A fish watches Tony in the wheelhouse
Tony investigates inside the funnel
Tony swims away from the wreck (reluctantly)
Black sea bream (Spondylisoma cantharus) in front of two banded sea bream and saddle bream on the Rozi
There is a large car park specially for divers, where many branded vehicles filled with cylinders, wetsuits and other dive gear can be seen on a daily basis. To get in, we walked down a sloping walkway with a handrail. At the bottom of the walkway we donned our fins and stepped into Suzie’s Pool, a shallow (waist deep) area that leads out into the sea.
Tony entering the water
Entry point for the Rozi and P29 – Susie’s Pool
Walkway down to Susie’s Pool
Shallow limestone reef outside Susie’s Pool
Swimming off towards the wreck
This sand spit is the indication to turn offshore when navigating to the wreck
Approaching the wreck
Moray eel on the Rozi
Swimming into Susie’s Pool and towards the exit point
Tony climbing out of the water (behind a water droplet)
The view down the port side of the Rozi
As with all artificial reefs, the Rozi is rich with fish life. Tony and I always wonder how the fish manage to find the scuttled ships afterwards, but somehow they do!
I have eulogised – a deliberate choice of word – the bluefin tuna at lengthon this blog, and others have done so in print, and far more eloquently than I. We were extremely, extremely fortunate to encounter a lonely Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) on a dive around the Inland Sea on Gozo, Malta. He stayed with us for nearly half an hour, constantly circling, and looked as if he wanted to be fed, making munching motions every time he came near one of us. He had probably escaped from one of the nearby fish farms (more on those later, but there’s some information here to get you started), and had perhaps learned to associate divers with food.
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus
These creatures can accelerate as fast as a Porsche, and we were able to observe a couple of times how he went from languid cruising to high speed fish chasing mode. We both felt that we could have stayed with him for much longer, but he left when we swam into a cave.
Atlantic bluefin tuna
Atlantic bluefin tuna
Heading away (briefly)
Atlantic bluefin tuna
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus
Doubling back to approach us yet again
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus
Circling round to join the divers again
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus
Flirting with the camera
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus
Our tuna disappears into the distance
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus
I found this an incredibly sad experience, because this schooling fish is meant to travel en masse with his brothers and sisters, but here he was alone, and seemed lost. It was also a mountain top experience (how I hate that expression) for me – I’d just read Song for the Blue Ocean and Tuna, and my head was filled with facts about these beautiful fish. Seeing one in the flesh was almost too much to contain within the confines of my regulator.
Looking like mercury with Tony's video light on him
I have broken up the invertebrate life into things (mostly) with eyes, and things without. Behold, the things without eyes…
Sponges
Red sponge (Crambe crambe)
The Mediterranean has a history of sponge diving that goes back to antiquity, and we saw quite a variety of sponges, but not vast numbers of them. The Mediterranean bath sponge is the primary target of sponge divers, and comes in a variety of exterior hues. It’s apparently creamy yellow to beige inside.
Bathing sponge (Spongia officinalis) traditionally harvested by Mediterranean sponge diversSpongia lamella, the elephant ear spongeScalarispongia scalarisUnknown (to me) but pretty spongeCould be the elephant ear sponge... Probably isn't!
We found the marine life of Malta strikingly different to what we are used to at home. I like to think that we are pretty good at finding things, because diving in Cape Town sometimes requires a beady eye, patience, and willingness to stare at what seems like barren sand. To both me and Tony the marine life of Malta seemed far less prolific than we are accustomed to in South Africa, and certainly there are not many invertebrates – in terms of both number of species and biomass – at all. The warm, clean water, which is devoid of plankton, probably does not support the dense aggregations of life that we are used to in the Cape.
Here is a summary of pretty much all the different invertebrates we did see. (You should note that I didn’t have twenty pictures of each creature to choose from… In the ten dives, I saw one hermit crab, one sea squirt, and ONE sea cucumber. Not one sea anemone – though apparently they are there somewhere. Imagine that!)
Nudibranchs
A nudibranch (Flabellina affinis) that we saw often on the deeper wrecks
Worms
We saw lots of fireworms, which have erectile bristles that will break off in your skin if you touch them, and cause irritation because they contain a toxic substance. They move just like centipedes, and occasionally form feeding aggregations – I didn’t get a photo of one, but Tony has some on video.
Fire worm (Hermodice carunculata)
We also saw a lot of tube worms, some even inside the cave and tunnels we swam through. On the deeper wrecks and less disturbed sites we found very large specimens.
Tubeworms (Serpula vermicularis) inside a cave under Gozo's Blue HoleThe tube worm Serpula vermicularisThe tube worm Serpula vermicularisThe tube worm Serpula vermicularis retracting into its tubeWhite tufted worm (Protula tubularia)
Crabs
Spinous spider crab (Maja squinado) hiding from the cameraHermit crab (Dardanus arrosor) on the wreck of the P29 patrol boat
Urchins
We saw a few different kinds of sea urchin, but I don’t have scientific names for them…
Urchin found in shallow waterSea urchins are light sensitive, so use shells and bits of seaweed as hatsDense purple spines cover this urchin
Sea cucumbers
A sea cucumber inside the cave leading to the inland sea at L'Ahrax Point
Sea stars
Common starfish (Echinaster sepositus)
We can’t move an inch in Cape waters without landing on a sea star, whereas in Malta I think I saw five starfish (individual specimens, not kinds) in ten dives. I was thus disproportionately excited when I did find them!
Irregular starfish (Coscinasteria tenuispina)
This next one is interesting – we find huge numbers of spiny sea stars at home, and I seem to recall reading that they are in fact a European “import”.
Spiny sea star (Marthasterias glacialis)
Ascidians
A red sea squirt
I say “ascidians”, but this is the only one I saw.
Our Divemaster in Malta for eight of the ten dives we did was a fantastic Russian Instructor (most of the guided dives are led by Instructors in Malta, rather than just Divemasters) called Sergey from Subway Scuba. His dive briefings were comprehensive and delivered with the panache of a tour guide. We loved driving to dive sites with him because he’d point out all sorts of interesting landmarks along the way.
You can see from the drivers around us the nature of Maltese driving (more than once we were told that the people of Malta “drive on the shady side of the road”!) and a little of the countryside.
Sergey tells us how long we will drive, and how we will take the ferry to Gozo and then drive to the dive sites. You can hear him describing the tunnel, arches and small lake of the dive sites we were visiting, as well as the importance of St Paul in Malta. He also tells us a bit about the difficulty of agriculture in Malta owing to the severely limited space available, and the resulting high cost of the natural produce.
The quality of this little video isn’t great, as it was filmed on Clare’s small underwater camera (which is hard to hold still outside its housing) while driving to the Gozo ferry at Cirkewwa. There’s a bit of traffic noise and light and shade as we drive along, but you can hear most of the briefing. Sergey is telling us about the Blue Hole and Inland Sea dive sites on Gozo, about which more will follow…
Not far from the wreck of the tugboat Rozi, off Cirkewwa in Malta, is situated a huge anchor, lying on the sand. It’s quite encrusted with sea plants and is an arresting site for passing divers.
The anchor is over two metres longSwimming over the anchor
The dive details shown below are from a dive we did on the Rozi (our first dive in Malta, in fact), after which we visited the anchor on our way back to shore.
After some years in the sea the anchor is quite encrusted
The Atlam Sub Aqua Club (Atlam is Malta spelled backwards) put this commemorative plaque and statue of an old fashioned diver’s helmet up in 2005 to celebrate their 50th anniversary. It’s located in about 28 metres of water on the way to the Um El Faroud off Weid iz Zurrieq in Malta, one of the most magnificent wreck dives in the Mediterranean, and as such provides a useful navigational aide.
The statue is a navigational aid to finding the Um El Faroud shipwreck
While we’re on the subject of diving helmets, here are two more that we found on our travels…
Signage outside a Danish firm of commercial divers
Tiny model of a diving helmet at Subway Scuba, Malta
The helmet rests on a plinth, raising it off the seabed
The dive details below are for the dive on the Um El Faroud during which we visited the plaque.
The statue depicts an old fashioned diving helmet
Dive date: 5 August 2011
Air temperature: 31 degrees
Water temperature: 22 degrees
Maximum depth: 34.3 metres
Visibility: 20 metres
Dive duration: 49 minutes
Six years of encrustation does not amount to much in these watersTony behind the monument
The people of Malta are predominantly Catholic, and the islands are full of visual reminders of their faith. One we particularly liked was a magnificent statue of Jesus Christ, purposely placed in the ocean as an attraction for scuba divers.
The statue stands in a natural amphitheatre of rock
The three metre tall, 13 ton statue by Maltese sculptor Alfred Camilleri Cauchi, made of concrete-covered fiberglass, was commissioned to commemorate the 1990 visit of Pope John Paul II to Malta. After being blessed by His Holiness, the statue was placed on the seabed near St Paul’s Islands as an attraction for divers.
Christ's face is upturned towards the surface (or heaven, if you prefer)
Ten years later the statue was moved to its current location about two kilometres offshore (off Qawra Point) near the (deliberately scuttled) wreck of the Imperial Eagle. The Imperial Eagle is a ferry that used to travel between Malta and Gozo, and was scuttled in July 1999. The statue was moved because the water clarity in its original location had deteriorated to the extent that it was no longer being dived. Explanations for this include increased boat traffic in the area (and possible dumping of waste from the vessels), and the nearby fish farms.
The statue is to scale, and three metres tall
It’s a tranquil and serene environment, and we found the statue, which is somewhat encrusted with sea plants and algae (but not nearly as much as it would be if it were in the waters of Cape Town!) quite beautiful and compelling.
Tony hovers behind the statue for scale
The statue stands on white sand in a natural circular amphitheatre, at a depth of about 28 metres. It is a short swim from the statue to the nearby Imperial Eagle. Dive details shown below are for a boat dive we did on both sites.
The large plinth rests on white sand
Dive date: 3 August 2011
Air temperature: 31 degrees
Water temperature: 18 degrees
Maximum depth: 37.0 metres
Visibility: 30 metres
Dive duration: 35 minutes
Tony swims off towards the Imperial Eagle shipwreck
Scuba Diving Malta – Gozo – Comino – Peter G. Lemon
Scuba diving Malta – Gozo – Comino
Peter G. Lemon is British, but has spent years diving in Malta and this book is the fruit of many years’ labour. He has the support of the Maltese government and local dive centres in the production of this book, and the several editions of this book have ensured that even the most recently scuttled wrecks are included. The Maltese government encourages scuba diving tourism by placing wrecks around the islands in diver-friendly locations.
The focus is on shore diving sites, of which Malta has many. Each dive site is mapped, with an aerial photograph of the location and entry points. Time estimates for the dives are given, as well as route suggestions. It’s much like the Maltese print equivalent of Peter Southwood’s wikivoyage pages for Cape Town diving! Boat dive sites are also listed with descriptions as an appendix.
The dive centre we used in Malta, Subway Scuba, in fact used this book in our dive briefings, and our Divemaster showed us our planned routes on the maps in the book.
The book is beautifully illustrated, with ample photographs to accompany the dive site maps. We found the photographs to be well representative of what the dive sites have to offer, and there was certainly no evidence that only pictures with the best visibility had been chosen… Everything looked just as we expected!
A well-worn copy ready for a dive briefing!
In the back of the book are the contact details for most of the local dive centres, as well as general information about what to see and do – apart from scuba diving – in Malta.
We used it as a reference before each of our dives in Malta during our vacation, but it will also serve as a wonderful reminder of our trip. The book is large format (A4 size) and if you’re planning a dive trip to Malta I wouldn’t set foot on the plane without a copy!
The book is available here, or else from most of the dive centres and tourist bookshops in Malta.
