A big, wild offshore reef north of Malta with a drop-off that keeps falling past 70 metres. Open sea, open water, proper boat diving, and the closest thing Malta offers to a blue-water hunting ground.
ReefSea conditions
Stay dry right now
Sea is up (3.6 m NW) · Fresh WNW wind (58 km/h) · Gusts to 90 km/h
Done for today. Tomorrow: not looking good. Best it gets is 22 at 17:00: Sea is up (1.4 m NW)
Forecast for the site, updated 19:45 · Models disagree
Measured at Ċirkewwa (7.3 km away, 20:29): 63 km/h from WNW, gusts 71. The next hours lean on it.
- Waves
- 3.6 m
- from NW, biggest 5.2
- Wind
- 58 km/h
- WNW, gusts 90
- Swell
- 0.5 m
- 11 s period
- Sea temp
- 22 °C
- air 18 °C
Hour by hour
Next 7 days
0 3.6 m48 W
0 3.4 m46 WNW
48 1.0 m16 WNW
86 0.4 m13 ESE
80 0.5 m12 E
74 0.5 m18 NNW
81 0.5 m15 SW
Sunrise 06:25, sunset 17:06
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: N (0°), NE (45°), E (90°), NW (315°), W (270°). Wide open to anything from the northern half of the compass. Only worth attempting on a flat, settled day with the wind off the land, and even then expect swell over the shallow bank. Best season: June to early October, when the northerlies ease and visibility on the plateau is at its best. Pelagic action peaks in late summer..
The dive
Sikka l-Bajda is the reef that most visiting divers never see, because it takes a boat, an echo sounder and a skipper who knows the transits. Local clubs still line up landmarks ashore, the Mosta dome against the eastern tip of St Paul's Island, the Red Tower against a cliff chapel at Ahrax, to find the good bits. Get it right and you are on a broad rocky plateau at 15 to 20 metres, all crevices and undercuts, running out to a shoulder that drops away into the blue.
The reef top is a patchwork: seaweed here, bare rock there, sand channels between, and large stretches that nobody has really swum. The drop-off is the reason to make the trip. It starts around 35 to 42 metres and keeps going well past 70, which means most recreational teams park on the lip, look down, and let the shallow plateau handle their off-gassing on the way back.
Because it sits in open water off the north coast, this is where you get the encounters Malta is usually shy about: shoals of barracuda hanging over the edge, amberjack and tuna cutting through, dentex that appear and vanish, eagle rays and stingrays working the sand. There is a sad footnote too, as the reef has taken a hammering from netting and trawling and you will see lost trammel net draped over the rock.
Bring everything you would bring to a real offshore dive: a DSMB you can actually deploy, a cutting tool, a plan for the boat losing sight of you, and honest gas reserves. The site is graded for experienced divers for good reasons.
- A genuine offshore drop-off falling past 70 metres
- The best odds in north Malta of barracuda, amberjack and dentex
- Huge, half-explored plateau of crevices and small caves
- Shallow reef top makes a convenient deco platform
- Remote enough that you will usually have it to yourselves
Typical plan
Follow the shot to the reef top around 15 metres, swim out across the plateau on a compass bearing to the shoulder, then run along the lip at 30 to 40 metres for ten to fifteen minutes with one eye on the blue. Turn back up the slope, spend the rest of the dive at 15 to 18 metres on the reef top clearing your ceiling, and surface under a DSMB well clear of the boat's swing. Nitrox 28 to 32 suits the profile; anything below 40 metres belongs on twins or a sidemount set with a proper deco plan.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Reef top plateau, crevices and undercuts15 m deep · under the boat
- 2Broken rock and small caves20 m deep · 60 m from the boat
- 3Sand channels between rock fingers25 m deep · 100 m from the boat
- 4Shoulder of the main drop-off40 m deep · 160 m from the boat
- 5Wall falling past 70 metres65 m deep · 180 m from the boat
Flat coralline rock with weed patches and sand channels on top, ending at a rubble shoulder that tips into deep water.
Who you might meet
Almost always
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
Boat only, with no facilities anywhere near. Charters usually run out of Cirkewwa, Mellieha or Bugibba. A sounder is more or less mandatory to put people on the drop-off rather than a random patch of plateau, and most operators anchor or hang a shot into the reef top and have divers follow the line down. Surface cover must stay with the divers because the site sits close to a busy boating route.
- Deep drop-off that invites depth creep well past recreational limits
- Current and surface chop are normal here, sometimes enough to make the line a workout
- Heavy boat traffic on a transit route; DSMB is not optional
- Lost trammel netting and monofilament snagged across the reef, so carry a cutting tool
- Easy to get separated from the boat in open water
- No shelter, no shore, no exit other than the boat
- Decompression obligation on any serious visit to the wall
Marine life to respect
Common eagle ray · Ħamiema Can hurt you
Barbed tail if grabbed or pinned. Watch it pass; it wants nothing to do with you.
Common stingray · Boll Can hurt you
Whips a barbed tail if stepped on or cornered. Stay off the sand and give it room.
A bit of history
No wrecks or legends here, just geology and fishing. The reef is an outcrop of the same hard coralline limestone that forms the north Malta headlands, left standing offshore as a shallow bank while the surrounding seabed dropped away, which is why the plateau ends in such an abrupt shoulder. Local clubs have dived it since the 1970s and 1980s, and the Maltese name simply describes the pale reef. Commercial netting and trawling on the bank have been blamed by divers for the visible decline in fish numbers over recent decades.
Divers say
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Further reading: Calypso Sub-Aqua Club: Sikka l-Bajda · Calypso Sub-Aqua Club: Is-Sikka tal-Kolonna · Divers Guide: Sikka l-Bajda · Visit Malta: Sikka l-Bajda (White Reef)