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Gozo

Ta' Cenc Reef

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.

Advanced🕳️ Cave🪸 Reef25 to 37 mBoat divePopularity: lowAlso called Ta' Cenc, Ta' Cenc Cave, Ta' Cenc Cliffs, Ta' Ċenċ, Ta'Cenc
Plan this dive

Sea conditions

90

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 01:45 AM

Waves
0.3 m
from SE
Wind
n/a
Swell
0.2 m
5 s period
Sea temp
28 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌤️75 0.6 m
0 N
Sat🌤️86 0.4 m
0 N
Sun🌤️89 0.4 m
0 N
Mon🌤️98 0.2 m
0 N
Tue🌤️83 0.4 m
0 N
Wed🌤️69 0.7 m
0 N
Thu🌤️72 0.6 m
0 N

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

0142737m🤿12345225 m from entry
  1. 1Mooring platform jutting from the headland8 m deep · 12 m out
  2. 2Lip of the steep drop12 m deep · 25 m out
  3. 3Algae-covered sloping wall26 m deep · 60 m out
  4. 4Jumbled boulders at the base36 m deep · 95 m out
  5. 5Cave on the return leg with a sharp inner bend14 m deep · 175 m out
Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from the boat drop. Depths are approximate.

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

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

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.

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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