Diving in Xgħajra
14 dive sites around Xgħajra: 13 wrecks, 1 cave and 1 reef. The stretch takes in Kalkara, Rinella, Fort Ricasoli and Smart City.
Depths run from 8 to 130 m. 1 suit Open Water divers and 12 are technical dives. 1 is a shore dive and 13 need a boat.
Most of these sites close when the wind or swell comes from the N, NE, E and SE, and almost all are sheltered in a wind from the SW and W.
Best right now
- HM Drifter Eddy0Stay dry
- HMD Trusty Star0Stay dry
- HMS Hellespont0Stay dry
Scores blend the wave, swell and wind forecasts for each site against the directions it is open to. Check the site page before you go.
Dive sites around Xgħajra
Digital Render
HM Drifter Eddy
Xgħajra, Malta
A small steel minesweeping drifter sitting upright and lonely on sand at 56 m, a mile and a half off Fort St Elmo. She was hunting mines when one found her in May 1942, and the hole it made is still the way in.
Digital RenderHMD Trusty Star
Xgħajra, Malta
A 1919 drifter turned wartime minesweeper lying on her starboard side at 90 m, three kilometres off Fort St Elmo. Found in 2016, opened to permitted technical divers in 2019, and still one of the least visited wrecks on the island.
Digital RenderHMS Hellespont
Xgħajra, Malta
A Robust class paddle tug, bombed in Grand Harbour in April 1942, later filled with rubble and scuttled off Fort Rinella. She sits upright on sand with her deck at 35 m and the seabed at 41, minus the first fifteen metres of her bow.
Digital RenderHMS Olympus
Xgħajra, Malta
An Odin-class submarine lying upright and largely whole at around a hundred and fifteen metres, holding the worst British submarine loss of the war. Eighty nine died, nine swam seven miles home.
Digital RenderHMS Russell
Xgħajra, Malta
A hundred and thirty two metre pre-dreadnought battleship lying completely upside down at around a hundred and ten to a hundred and fifteen metres, with her stern torn away and her guns scattered on the sand. The biggest thing on the Maltese seabed by a wide margin.
Digital RenderHMS St. Angelo
Xgħajra, Malta
A twenty four metre Royal Navy tug, mined in May 1942 while sweeping, now sitting upright and tidy at fifty four metres just outside Grand Harbour. Small, complete and charming, with one large catch: she is parked in the shipping channel.
Digital RenderLevant II
Xgħajra, Malta
A small cable ship sitting upright and largely whole at fifty nine metres, about a kilometre off the mouth of Grand Harbour. She spent ten years on divers' logs as simply the cable ship before anyone worked out her name.
Digital RenderSchnellboot S-31
Xgħajra, Malta
A German fast torpedo boat that struck a drifting mine off Valletta in May 1942 and went down with half her crew. She lies upright at 65 m with her torpedo tubes, engines and triple screws still in place.
Digital RenderHMS Justified
Xgħajra, Malta
A 90 metre trimix target on the flat mud east of Valletta, in the stretch of seabed where Malta's little minesweeping drifters were blown up one after another in 1942. The ship's story is now well documented; what is missing is anyone confirming she lies here.
Digital RenderHMS ML 130
Xgħajra, Malta
A Fairmile B motor launch shot to pieces by German S-boats a mile off the St Elmo breakwater in May 1942, now lying at around a hundred and ten metres. Wooden hull, so there is less left every year, and hardly anyone goes.
Digital RenderHMS Urge
Xgħajra, Malta
A British U class submarine lost with all hands in 1942 and finally located in 2019, sitting upright on the seabed a few kilometres off the Grand Harbour approaches at around 130 metres. She is a war grave rather than a dive in the ordinary sense.
Digital RenderSchnellboot S-34
Xgħajra, Malta
A German fast attack boat shot up by Malta's 9.2 inch coastal guns in May 1942, abandoned, and finished off the next morning by a Luftwaffe fighter sent to sink her. She lies somewhere out on the plateau off Zonqor Point, position unpublished, and nobody has reported diving her.
Digital RenderUnknown Schnellboot
Xgħajra, Malta
A German fast attack boat said to lie in about 90 m of open water off Valletta and Sliema, with no confirmed identity, no published survey and no dive report anywhere. The position is a rumour that has been copied forward for years rather than a verified wreck.
Digital Render
Xgħajra Reef
Xgħajra, Malta
A quiet, barely written up reef off the Xgħajra seafront where wave erosion has carved a sinkhole and a knot of short tunnels and low arches. Shallow, atmospheric and almost entirely free of other divers.