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Delimara · Marsaxlokk · Malta

East Reef

The friendly corner of Delimara Point: a shallow reef of low ledges and sand channels that makes a gentle, unhurried dive, provided the sea has been flat for days.

Open Water Reef5 to 25 mShore Access: MediumPopularity: LowAlso called Delimara East Reef
Plan this dive

Sea conditions

68

Good right now

Some chop (2.2 m WNW) · Gusts to 46 km/h

Done for today. Tomorrow: diveable all day. Lowest point 70 around 06:00.

Forecast for the site, updated 17:45 · Models disagree

Measured at Delimara (3.7 km away, 18:29): 27 km/h from W, gusts 35. The next hours lean on it.

Waves
2.2 m
from WNW, biggest 2.3
Wind
32 km/h
W, gusts 46
Swell
0.9 m
9 s period
Sea temp
22 °C
air 19 °C

Hour by hour

18642.1 m
45
19682.2 m
32
20632.3 m
38
21592.3 m
44
22572.4 m
47
23582.4 m
47
00592.3 m
46
01602.3 m
44
02622.2 m
45
03642.1 m
43
04662.0 m
41
05681.9 m
38
06701.8 m
36
07721.8 m
33
08841.7 m
32
09851.6 m
33
10851.5 m
31
11881.4 m
31
12901.4 m
28
13911.3 m
27
14931.2 m
26
15931.1 m
25
16951.1 m
25
17961.0 m
23
18971.0 m
21

Next 7 days

TodayShowers50 2.4 m
48 W
TueCloudy62 2.3 m
46 WNW
WedCloudy100 0.7 m
15 W
ThuShowers77 0.4 m
15 ESE
FriShowers67 0.6 m
15 E
SatMostly sunny57 0.6 m
20 NE
SunUnknown61 0.6 m
20 SE

Sunrise 06:24, sunset 17:05

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: NE (45°), E (90°), SE (135°). This reef needs the sea to have been flat for a couple of days, not just flat this morning. Leftover easterly swell still breaks on the entry rocks long after the wind has died. In a westerly it goes glassy and the visibility is superb. Best season: June to September for the most reliable calm, with early mornings the best bet before the afternoon sea breeze fills in..

The dive

East Reef is the easy option at Delimara, and at this headland easy is a relative word. The ground shelves gently away from the rocks into a broad shallow reef of low ledges, cracks and sand channels, with most of the interest sitting between 5 and 15 metres and a slow slope carrying you out toward 25 if you want the depth.

It is a pleasant, low pressure dive with very good visibility on its day and enough small life in the crevices to keep a camera busy for an hour. Nothing about the topography is dramatic, which is exactly the appeal after the more serious south side.

The reason it is rarely dived has nothing to do with what is underwater. The reef faces due east and takes any swell from that quarter straight on the chin, and the entry is over bare rock with no ladder and no handrail. On a genuinely calm day it is lovely. On anything else you should not be standing there with a cylinder on your back.

  • The one dive at Delimara that does not need an advanced card
  • Excellent visibility when the sea cooperates
  • Sand channels and ledges that reward slow looking
  • Shallow enough for a long, relaxed bottom time

Typical plan

Step in off the rocks on the eastern side, drop to 5 metres and follow the reef out on a compass bearing, letting it take you gradually to 12 or 15 metres. Turn at around 25 minutes or half your gas, then work back inshore along a different line of ledges. An hour on a single cylinder is comfortable and air is rarely the limiting factor. Keep the last 10 minutes above 6 metres poking into the shallow cracks, which is where the octopus and the small stuff live, and surface close to your exit rather than swimming in on the surface.

What the bottom looks like

091825m1234300 m from entry
  1. 1Low ledges and cracks on the shallow shelf6 m deep · 40 m out
  2. 2Sand channels running between reef fingers12 m deep · 110 m out
  3. 3Scattered boulders on the outer slope18 m deep · 180 m out
  4. 4Thin Posidonia patches at the edge of the sand22 m deep · 250 m out
Cartoon cross-section along the usual route. Depths are approximate.

Low limestone ledges broken by clean sand channels, with patchy seagrass further out on the slope.

Who you might meet

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

Same approach as the rest of the peninsula: park on the rough roadside near the lighthouse and walk out over broken ground to the eastern side of the point. The carry is not long but it is uneven, so a buddy check before you start moving beats a stumble halfway. Entry is a step or slide off low rock into shallow water, with the exit at the same spot. Nothing in the way of facilities, so sort food, water and toilets in Marsaxlokk beforehand.

  • Swell from the east arrives with no warning and no shelter
  • Bare rock entry and exit, no ladder or steps
  • Sea urchins on the shallow rock right where you put your hands
  • Boat traffic rounding the point, fly a surface marker
  • Fishing line snagged in the shallow ledges
  • Uneven walk in with kit

Marine life to respect

  • 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

No wrecks and no legends here, just the drowned edge of the Delimara limestone shelf stepping seawards in the same beds you walk over on the way in.

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Further reading: Malta Dive Sites, East Reef Delimara · Calypso Sub-Aqua Club, Delimara Point · Malta Dive Sites, Delimara area