A small platform at eight metres under the highest cliffs on Gozo, a steep algae-covered wall below it, big boulders at the base, and a cave on the way home with a bend in it worth finding.
Cave
ReefSea conditions
Stay dry right now
Sea is up (4.1 m WNW) · Fresh W wind (32 km/h) · Gusts to 51 km/h
Done for today. Tomorrow: not looking good. Best it gets is 21 at 17:00: Sea is up (1.6 m WNW)
Forecast for the site, updated 19:45 · Models disagree
Measured at Qammieħ (6.8 km away, 20:29): 24 km/h from W, gusts 40. The next hours lean on it.
- Waves
- 4.1 m
- from WNW, biggest 6.1
- Wind
- 32 km/h
- W, gusts 51
- Swell
- 0.5 m
- 8 s period
- Sea temp
- 22 °C
- air 18 °C
Hour by hour
Next 7 days
0 4.1 m52 W
0 4.0 m51 WNW
44 1.0 m17 W
90 0.3 m13 ESE
89 0.3 m12 E
87 0.3 m19 NNW
91 0.3 m15 SSW
Sunrise 06:26, 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: SE (135°), S (180°), SW (225°). Well sheltered from north westerlies, which is exactly why Gozo skippers head here when Reqqa and Dwejra are unworkable. A southerly puts surge on the wall and into the cave, and the boat will be uncomfortable on the platform. Visibility is generally good, twenty to thirty metres, and current is usually mild. Best season: April to November, with the best mix of calm water and warmth from June onwards. It is a reliable winter option on a settled northerly spell if your centre is running boats..
The dive
Ta' Cenc is the quiet neighbour of Mgarr ix-Xini, and it does everything that bay does not. Where Mgarr ix-Xini is a gentle sandy training site, Ta' Cenc is a wall under a hundred and thirty metres of cliff, with a proper drop and a bit of an edge to it.
The boat ties up on a small rock platform at around eight metres that sticks out from the headland. It is a gift of a feature: easy anchorage, easy briefing, and a perfect shelf for your safety stop at the end. From the platform the ground falls away steeply, the rock covered in algae and encrusting growth, and at the base big boulders pile up in a jumble that runs out towards the mid thirties.
The return leg is where most people's favourite bit lives. A cave opens at around fourteen metres, deeper inside than it first looks and with a sharp turn partway in that hides the exit light for a moment. It is not a technical penetration, but it is the sort of thing you want a torch and a calm buddy for.
A good, honest Gozo wall dive that runs when the north coast has shut down.
- Diving directly beneath the highest cliffs on Gozo
- An eight metre platform that makes mooring and the safety stop painless
- A steep wall into a boulder field in the mid thirties
- A cave at fourteen metres with a bend that hides the exit
- A dependable choice when the north west is blown out
Typical plan
Descend on the platform, over the lip and down the wall to around thirty metres at the boulders, twelve to fifteen minutes there, then a slow return along the rock to the cave at fourteen metres for a look inside before finishing on the platform. Forty five to fifty minutes total, single 15 litre on nitrox 32, average depth around twenty two metres, torch in hand for the cave.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Mooring platform jutting from the headland8 m deep · under the boat
- 2Lip of the steep drop12 m deep · 13 m from the boat
- 3Algae-covered sloping wall26 m deep · 48 m from the boat
- 4Jumbled boulders at the base36 m deep · 83 m from the boat
- 5Cave on the return leg with a sharp inner bend14 m deep · 163 m from the boat
Steep limestone covered in algae and encrusting growth, breaking into large fallen boulders with sand and rubble in the gaps at the bottom.
Who you might meet
Often
Lucky day
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, and a short run: Mgarr ix-Xini is minutes away and Mgarr harbour not much more. Skippers moor on the eight metre platform off the headland. There is no realistic shore option, since the cliffs above are vertical and enormous. Mgarr ix-Xini has a small beach, a seasonal cafe and parking if you want a surface interval on land, and it makes an obvious second dive.
- Steep wall makes depth creep easy, and the boulder field keeps going below your plan
- Overhead rock in the cave with a bend that breaks line of sight to the exit
- Silt on the cave floor
- Surge inside the cave when there is any southerly swell
- Boat traffic in and out of Mgarr ix-Xini during summer
- No shore exit under the cliffs
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
The Ta' Cenc cliffs above the site are the highest on Gozo, roughly a hundred and thirty metres of Lower Coralline Limestone, and the plateau on top carries some of the oldest human traces on the island: prehistoric dolmens and the famous cart ruts cut into the bare rock. Just to the east is Mgarr ix-Xini, the narrow inlet the Knights used as a galley anchorage and which Ottoman raiders used in the 1551 attack that carried off most of the population of Gozo. No wreck lies at the site itself.
Divers say
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Further reading: Calypso Sub Aqua Club, Ta' Cenc · Atlantis Gozo, Ta' Cenc Cliffs · SSI My Dive Guide, Mgarr ix-Xini and Ta' Cenc