Xwejni Bay · Gozo

Xwejni Bay

The busiest shore-diving car park on Gozo's north coast, and deservedly so. A shallow, sheltered bay with a slipway entry, Posidonia meadows and a short open cave, and it is also the launch pad for Double Arch, Calypso Cave and Submarine Cave further out.

Open Water🕳️ Cave🪸 Reef🧱 Wall15 to 45 mShore access: easyPopularity: highAlso called Qbajjar and Xwejni, Xwejni

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

100

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Diveable for the rest of the day.

Forecast for the site, updated 12:44 PM · Models differ a little

Measured at Mġarr, Gozo (9.5 km away, 01:52 PM): 3 km/h from ENE, gusts 4. The next hours lean on it.

Waves: 0.3 m; from WSW, biggest 0.4
Wind: 8 km/h; NNW, gusts 17
Swell: 0.2 m; 5 s period
Sea temp: 28 °C; air 25 °C

Hour by hour

161000.3 m
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171000.3 m
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231000.3 m
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001000.3 m
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011000.3 m
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021000.2 m
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031000.2 m
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151000.2 m
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Next 7 days

Today⛈️90 0.3 m
16 WSW

Sun⛈️91 0.3 m
12 NW

Mon☁️92 0.3 m
10 N

Tue☁️67 0.6 m
12 NW

Wed⛈️20 1.3 m
18 ESE

Thu🌤️39 0.9 m
19 SE

Fri🌤️62 0.6 m
16 W

Sunrise 06:48, sunset 19:04

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.

Xwejni Bay, Gozo

Deep / Experienced30 to 45 mShore: medium

The dive

Xwejni is the bay with the salt pans: flat white terraces cut into the rock, a coast road running behind them and a shallow slipway that lets you walk into the water instead of leaping. For training, refreshers, weight checks and night dives it is close to ideal, because the inner bay barely reaches 10 metres and nothing is in a hurry.

The ground is a patchwork of Neptune grass, pale sand and low rock ledges, with small canyons cut between them that hide more than you expect. Young barracuda school over the grass, bream drift in loose crowds, octopus sulk in the rock, and wrasse follow you around hoping you will turn something over. Visibility in settled weather is routinely 15 to 20 metres.

The bay is also a doorway. Head northwest across the shelf and the ground eases past 30 metres, and a long swim or a short boat hop puts you on Double Arch. Track east along the same wall and you reach Calypso Cave and Submarine Cave. Those are advanced outings; the bay itself is deliberately gentle.

Treat it as a base rather than a headline. Do a proper dive somewhere out on the reef, come back here for the second, and finish with a coffee among the salt pans.

Walk-in slipway entry, about as easy as Gozo gets
Posidonia meadows and small canyons full of small stuff
Excellent night dive with parking right at the water
Gateway to Double Arch, Calypso Cave and Submarine Cave
Salt pans and a coffee kiosk on the doorstep

Typical plan

Walk in at the slipway, drop onto the grass at 5 metres and follow the rock ledges north and west to about 12 metres, working the canyons slowly. Loop back over the shallows and finish in 5 metres among the grass, which makes a long, comfortable dive on a single cylinder. Sixty minutes is easy. If you want the outer shelf, plan it properly, take an SMB and accept a decent surface swim.

What the bottom looks like

1Neptune grass banks just off the slipway5 m deep · 30 m out
2Sand and rubble patches in the inner bay9 m deep · 90 m out
3Short open cave with an exit around 10 metres10 m deep · 150 m out
4Low rock canyons on the outer shelf13 m deep · 220 m out
5Gradual outer drop-off heading offshore30 m deep · 400 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from Slipway on the west side of Xwejni Bay. Depths are approximate.

Neptune grass over sand and rubble in the bay, hardening into low limestone ledges and canyons as you move offshore.

Who you might meet

Almost always

Often

Sometimes

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

Drive the coast road from Marsalforn through Qbajjar to Xwejni; there is informal roadside parking right beside the water and space to kit up on the flat rock. The slipway on the west side of the bay is the standard entry and exit, gentle enough to walk in fully kitted. The salt pans make a natural staging area but they are working heritage, so keep tanks and boots off the pan surfaces. Kiosks and a cafe operate near the bay in season; the nearest full facilities and toilets are back in Marsalforn, a few minutes away.

Small boats using the slipway and the bay
Slippery algae on the slipway and rock shelf
Long swims if you push out to the offshore sites
Sharp rock and salt pan edges when walking in kit
Exposed to northerly swell that funnels into the bay
Jellyfish blooms in late summer

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 salt pans behind the bay are the reason most people know the name. Cut into the soft Globigerina limestone shelf, some of them are said to date back several hundred years, and families from Marsalforn still harvest sea salt from them each summer. The hard Upper Coralline cap forms the headlands and the arches offshore.