Ċirkewwa · Malta

P29

A 52 m East German built patrol boat sitting upright on sand at 34 m, reachable on a shore dive from Ċirkewwa. Clean, photogenic and probably the most satisfying wreck in Malta for the effort involved.

Advanced🚢 Wreck20 to 34 mShore access: easyPopularity: highAlso called BG31, Boltenhagen, GS09, Kondor I minesweeper, Patrol Boat P29

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

100

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 02:29 AM

Waves: n/a
Wind: 4 km/h; SSW, gusts 10
Swell: n/a
Sea temp: n/a; air 25 °C

Next 7 days

Today☁️100 ? m
14 SW

Sat☁️100 ? m
13 SSW

Sun🌦️92 ? m
5 ENE

Mon☁️100 ? m
13 WNW

Tue☁️95 ? m
20 NW

Wed🌤️97 ? m
22 E

Thu🌤️100 ? m
10 NNE

Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:05

Exposed to wind and swell from: NW (315°), W (270°), N (0°). Entry and exit are the limiting factor rather than the wreck itself. Any northwesterly or westerly of strength puts surge on the stairs and haze in the shallows, and once that happens the site closes. In a northerly through southeasterly it is usually glass. Best season: May to October for the warmest water and best visibility, though it dives well any time the northwest quarter is quiet..

The dive

The P29 has an unfair advantage over most wrecks: you can walk to her. Down the steps at Susie's Pool, out across the shallow plateau, and after about five minutes of swimming the sand falls away and a warship appears below you, sitting bolt upright on her keel with her bow pointed out to sea. She is 52 m long and the top of her mast and superstructure reaches within 12 m of the surface, so she is in view for most of the descent.

Navigation is unusually kind. Two landmarks mark the route out, first a memorial stone lying on the sand, then an old anchor in the seagrass, and in summer a big yellow buoy floats above the wreck so you can surface swim out and drop straight down if you prefer. Either way you arrive at the stern first, closest to shore, and work forward along the deck.

Because she was prepared properly before sinking, the interior is genuinely open. Swim throughs run from midships all the way to the bow, and there is a shorter route through the stern. The engines came out before scuttling, so the machinery spaces are more cavern than engine room. If you would rather stay outside, the deck fittings, the gun mount, the bridge windows and the rails are covered in growth and busy with fish. Bream shoal over the foredeck, groupers sit under the overhangs, and barracuda hang in the blue off the bow in late summer.

A 52 m warship you can reach without a boat
Sitting perfectly upright with mast within 12 m of the surface
Open swim throughs from midships to the bow
Memorial stone and anchor as a ready made navigation trail
Barracuda and amberjack hanging off the bow in autumn

Typical plan

Nitrox 32 if you can get it. Surface swim to the buoy or navigate out in midwater, descend the stern at 34 m, work forward along the deck and up over the bridge, then either a short penetration with a torch and a guide or a lap of the outside. Aim for around twenty minutes on the wreck, then ascend to the mast, follow the reef and seagrass back shallow, and use the last ten minutes above 10 m as a long, relaxed safety stop before the stairs.

What the bottom looks like

1Susie's Pool plateau5 m deep · 15 m out
2Memorial stone to Frank Pembridge on the sand16 m deep · 70 m out
3Old anchor on the Posidonia, second navigation landmark24 m deep · 105 m out
4Stern of P29, nearest point to shore34 m deep · 145 m out
5Bridge and superstructure20 m deep · 165 m out
6Mast top, shallowest part of the wreck12 m deep · 180 m out
7Foredeck and gun mount26 m deep · 195 m out
8Bow, pointing out to sea34 m deep · 208 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from Susie's Pool stairs, then a 150 m swim out. Depths are approximate.

Pale sand under the hull, with Posidonia meadow and low reef between the wreck and the shore.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Shore dive from the Ċirkewwa diver car park, with your certification card displayed on the dashboard. Walk to the Susie's Pool stairs, which drop you into waist deep water in a natural alcove, then either swim out on the surface to the summer buoy or navigate out in midwater past the memorial stone and the anchor. Exit is back up the same stairs, which feel considerably steeper after a 34 m dive. Toilets, cafes and shade are a couple of minutes away at the ferry terminal.

34 m on the sand, so no stop time is short and narcosis is real
Penetration carries overhead and silt risk and needs a torch and training
Sharp edges and corroded steel inside the hull
Long swim back to shore at the end of a deep dive, so watch your gas
Busy site with multiple groups on the wreck at once
Boat traffic above, so surface at the buoy or deploy a marker
Slippery steps on the way out
Surge at the entry if there is any northwesterly running

A bit of history

She was built at the Peene Werft yard in Wolgast, East Germany, launched in May 1970 as the Kondor I class minesweeper Boltenhagen with pennant GS09, named after a town on the Baltic coast. Besides minesweeping she patrolled the river border between East and West Germany. After reunification she passed to the German Federal Coast Guard as BG31 and was decommissioned in 1996, the last Kondor I still in their service. Malta bought her in 1997 and renamed her P29, joining two sister ships already serving as P30 and P31, and she spent seven years with the Maritime Squadron of the Armed Forces of Malta chasing smugglers and running border patrols before being paid off in 2004. The Malta Tourism Authority bought her in September 2005 for scuttling. Contaminants were stripped and both engines removed, the site was shifted about 30 m at the last minute to spare the seabed, and bad weather pushed the sinking back three days. She finally went down off Susie's Pool on the afternoon of 14 August 2007.