Anchor Bay · Malta
Anchor Bay
A narrow inlet on the west coast below the Popeye film set village, with four easy features in twelve metres of water: a big cavern, a three metre anchor, a boulder reef and a sheltered training corner. The go to site when a north easterly closes everything else.
Sea conditions
Good right now
Some chop (0.4 m SSW)
Diveable for the rest of the day. Lowest point 72 around 18:00.
Forecast for the site, updated 12:44 PM · Models agree
Measured at Qammieħ (3.3 km away, 01:50 PM): 4 km/h from ENE, gusts 5. The next hours lean on it.
- Waves
- 0.4 m
- from SSW, biggest 0.8
- Wind
- 6 km/h
- NNW, gusts 11
- Swell
- 0.4 m
- 4 s period
- Sea temp
- 28 °C
- air 25 °C
Hour by hour
Next 7 days
Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:04
Waves: Copernicus Med-Waves 4 km + MFWAM 8 km + EWAM 5 km + ECMWF WAM 9 km. Wind: ICON-2I 2 km + ECMWF IFS 9 km + ICON-EU 7 km + UKMO 10 km + ARPEGE 11 km. Read a few km out on the side the site is open to, then blended.
Exposed to wind and swell from: W (270°), NW (315°), SW (225°). The classic north easterly refuge. Cliffs on both sides plus the film set breakwater give it real shelter from anything with north or east in it, and that is exactly when centres head here. Put the wind in the west and the bay becomes a washing machine with visibility to match. Best season: May to October for warm, clear water. Diveable year round whenever the wind sits somewhere between north and south east..
Dives at Anchor Bay
The dive
Anchor Bay is a slot between two cliffs about three kilometres from Mellieha, and it is impossible to describe without mentioning the cartoon village painted onto the rock above it. Sweethaven was built here in 1979 and 1980 for the Robin Williams Popeye film and never came down, so you kit up on a concrete jetty looking at nineteen crooked wooden houses in primary colours. It is deeply silly and completely charming.
Underwater it is genuinely good, in the unshowy way that shallow sites are good. Nothing in the bay goes past about twelve metres, which means a single cylinder buys you an hour and you can chain the features together: out along the south wall to Scorpion Cave and its air pocket, back across through the fallen boulders and swim throughs, over to the anchor and its chain on the north side, then home into the shallows behind the jetty. Do that route slowly and you will have seen more life than on plenty of deeper dives.
Its other virtue is strategic. Malta's headline sites face north, so a hard north easterly shuts down Cirkewwa and the whole north coast. Anchor Bay is tucked in facing the other way with a purpose built breakwater across its mouth, so on those days it fills up with grateful dive centres. It is also a fine second dive, a fine night dive, and a fine place to teach. There is a wreck nearby too, the barge Scotscraig at around 21 metres, but that sits several hundred metres away in the next inlet and is a boat dive, not a swim.
- Four distinct features in one twelve metre dive
- Scorpion Cave with a surfaceable air pocket and a wide, bright entrance
- A three metre anchor and chain you can swim under
- Reliable shelter when a north easterly closes the north coast
- Surface interval below a 1980 cartoon film set
Typical plan
One twelve litre cylinder, no decompression, maximum twelve metres. Ladders in off the jetty, out along the south wall at six to nine metres to Scorpion Cave at around 150 metres, into the cavern and up into the air pocket. Back out, cross the boulder field to the north side and find the anchor at eight metres, follow the chain in, then finish in the shallows behind the jetty. Sixty to seventy five minutes is normal. If you want the Scotscraig wreck at 21 metres as well, book a boat.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Training shallows behind the jetty4 m deep · 30 m out
- 2Three metre anchor and chain on the north side8 m deep · 90 m out
- 3Cliff fallen boulder field10 m deep · 130 m out
- 4Scorpion Cave entrance on the south wall10 m deep · 160 m out
- 5Air pocket under the cave dome8 m deep · 175 m out
- 6Deepest rocky reef at the bay mouth12 m deep · 200 m out
- 7Posidonia along the sand margin8 m deep · 280 m out
Limestone boulders and rubble fallen from the cliffs, separated by sand channels and fringed with Posidonia toward the head of the bay.
Who you might meet
Almost always
Often
Sometimes
Marked ones can hurt you. What they do and what to do about it is under Getting in and staying safe.
Getting in and staying safe
From Mellieha follow the signs for Popeye Village and take the dirt road down toward the water. Parking is on the flat area above the bay. You get in and out at the concrete jetty that runs along the southern side of the inlet, directly opposite the village, using the ladders on the inner face and enough space to kit up on the concrete. Toilets, a cafe and shops are at the Popeye Village entrance above. Go early in high season: the bay is a popular swimming and snorkelling spot and the tourist boats start running mid morning.
- Tourist boats and pleasure craft entering the bay
- Currents across the mouth of the inlet
- Visibility that collapses to almost nothing after westerly weather
- Overhead environment in Scorpion Cave and surge through its entrance
- Swimmers and snorkellers overhead in summer
- Slippery concrete and ladders on the jetty
Marine life to respect
Bearded fireworm · Busuf Can hurt you
Bristles snap off in the skin and burn for hours. Never touch; lift them out with tape, then hot water.
Mediterranean moray · Morina Can hurt you
Bites hard if a hand goes into its hole. Keep hands out of cracks and never feed one.
Red scorpionfish · Ċippullazza Can hurt you
Venomous spines, and it sits still on the rock. Look before you kneel or hold on; hot water if stung.
A bit of history
The bay takes its modern character entirely from one film. Construction of the Sweethaven set began in June 1979 and took about seven months, with a crew of roughly 165 putting up nineteen timber buildings from logs and planks shipped in from the Netherlands and shingles from Canada. A breakwater of some 60 to 75 metres was thrown across the mouth of the bay to keep the sea off the set, and the concrete jetty divers use today served both as that breakwater and as a landing point for materials. Filming ran from January to June 1980 and the film was released that December. The barge MV Scotscraig, a former Scottish ferry, appeared in the film as Popeye's barge, was later used in building the jetty, and sank around 1981 while under tow, ending up in the nearby inlet of Ic-Cumnija. The set is now a theme park, and in February 2023 a boulder falling from the cliff during a storm damaged part of it.
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Further reading: Wikipedia: Popeye Village, construction and breakwater · Dive Shack Malta: Anchor Bay · New Dimension Scuba: Anchor Bay and Scorpion Cave · Seashell Dive Centre: Anchor Bay · Malta Dive Sites: Scotscraig wreck · Malta Ship Photos: Abercraig and Scotscraig at Malta