Darren had arranged a standard 10 dive package with Strand dive centre, this involved picking us up from our hotel each day and taking us to the dive location, mainly shore dives. So the first day, as every day would be, we were collected by Alex from Strand in an old Transit van/minibus. The two doing courses were left with Lawrence, Strands owner. We went to the shop and sorted out our kit, then set off to our first dive site, the tug Rozi. 

  The Rozi is a shore dive with a 100m swim out to the wreck. We kitted up after messing about with three weight belts that had fallen apart and then jumped in. I haven't dived with a single cylinder and a dry suit for many years, I tried to work out roughly what weight I would require but was wrong. After faffing about on the surface for a while trying to get Alex's attention to no avail they swam off without me so I ended up snorkelling back.

The second dive I took loads of weight and went with Sharky to dive the tug while the rest dived the adjacent Cirkewwa reef, which I had snorkelled earlier. The tug was upright and in fairly good condition and it was probably a lot better with only Sharky and I on it rather than the large amount of divers that were there in the morning. A very nice dive. It had been sunk deliberately for a tourist submarine to view, it wasn't running now and I don't think it has run for years. I did hear stories of divers hitching lifts on the sub rather than swimming out to the wreck. Pity it wasn't still running.

Day 2 started as day 1, this time we took the arduous journey to the Um El Faroud. I say arduous as there were nine of us in the truck altogether, with around twenty five cylinders for the two dives and all the dive kit. The Transit was in a pretty bad way, combine that with all the weight and our internal organs ended up seriously bruised. The Um El Faroud was a longer swim from the shore than the tug, we got to it easily enough, swam through it then were signalled to go back. That was short a short dive! Someone was low on air already.

The second dive was the Wied-Iz-Zurrieq East reef at the bottom of the steps where we had entered to dive the Faroud. It was exactly the same as the last reef, covered in brown weed with no fish, very unexciting apart from one John Dory and an Octopus that was squeezed into a hole. After the dive the Transit van struggled getting up the hill and needed some assistance.

The next day for a change, we walked a couple of hundred metres down the road to a small quay, where we were collected by a converted painted Maltese fishing boat, a Luzzu, and taken to the island of Comino. The first dive was Lantern Point & The Chimney Cave, probably more of the boring brown weed. We headed down with the group following Alex, when all of a sudden he was signalling everyone to go up, we were at 44m and apart from a couple of us, no-one else was qualified or had ever been to that depth before. So they hurriedly made their way to shallower waters. The small chimney cave that came up under the boat was the only interesting bit, apart that is, from Alex's face when he realised how deep we all were. I asked Alex if he ended up in deco, he said yes 8 minutes, I asked what computer he was using as I only had 3 minutes, he said he doesn't use a computer and does it in his head.

The second dive were the Santa Marija Caves on Comino, they were small shallow caves and were very picturesque. The blue colour of the sea looking back out was very nice and made some great silhouettes with divers going in and out. We could have spent more time in there really, but instead, Alex decided to show us some more boring reefs!

Back Again

After our first visit a few months ago we got the call to go again. This time with two extra divers, Ben and James. After the small success of the first visit, finding not only all sorts of items but an old encrusted anchor as well, perhaps there was more there. Another three days were planned, once again we would be diving from Autumn Dream. The weather forecast wasn't to bad, but it was decided to stay at Newlyn and travel across each day. My RHIB hadn't been repaired so it couldn't be used as a diver shuttle this time, so we used Ben's RHIB instead. Sharky and I were collected from Porthleven, as was Colin.

Our first day saw flat seas and the sun shining, although there was a slight breeze. The ground swell was still going to be a problem in such shallow water, but we'd find out soon enough. On the first dive we went for a quick look round to see what the conditions were like. We found that the sand had moved, a lot, covering most of the area. When we dived the site in March the sand seemed very low and the steel beams were exposed, this time they were buried. Most of the area was covered in at least a foot of sand, maybe even two in places.

The conditions underwater were very similar to the last time we were here, quite a lot of swell but the visibility was quite poor with the increased levels of sand around being churned up. The increased depth of sand was going to make even harder work with the air lift. We searched all the areas we had searched before, finding a few extra bits, we also looked a little further afield. Back on the boat and everyone emptied their pockets and bags, the finds were of mixed origin once again, but still no Dollars. 

The air lift was going to be deployed for the next dive, we were going to explore an area close to where we had previously used it. We searched vigorously for an hour, taking it in turns to use the air lift, all to no avail. A few extra bits came up from the divers not using the air lift, the air lift just reduced the visibility even more. The higher levels of sand combined with the way the sand moved made running a small air lift almost pointless. The day had finished with several finds of all ages, everyone was happy that we had done what we could and were looking forward to tomorrow.

The long trek from Newlyn to the dive site was much more comfortable on Autumn dream than it was on my RHIB. The second days diving was very similar to the first, with less finds coming up from the divers and nothing being found with the air lift. Perhaps we had cleared all the artifacts that had been uncovered already, perhaps we needed the sand to move a few more times to bring up more items.

The third day was again similar to the second, less finds, although I did find a very old piece of wood jammed between two rocks. The wood showed some sign of being eaten by 'Toledo Worm', which are only found in warmer water, so this was more than likely from an old Spanish or Portugese ship, but which one? At the end of the third day all the diver were agreed that there wasn't going to be much more found there without some serious commercial sand clearing kit, and even then it doesn't mean there is anything left.

After one of our usual Friday evening dives, we were sitting in the bar chatting about diving and diving related things. Darren had recently got back from Malta and Neil really liked the idea of going. A few others had expressed an interest in going too, I was interested but had already a lot of weekends booked away and would go if it didn't clash. A few weeks later I saw a post on a diving forum with a list of names, after checking my diary I added mine. We all met up after another dive and paid for the flights and accommodation, the diving would be paid directly to the dive centre.

There were going to be four of us travelling up from Cornwall and then all flying out of Gatwick. The rest of the group worked at Gatwick, so they had a lot less distance to travel than us. There was a really mixed group of people going, two were going to be doing their Open Water course and two of us were Trimix qualified, with a range of divers between. We travelled up on the Wednesday evening and stayed at Darren's house, the flight wasn't early but travelling from Cornwall to London is a pain any time of day. We all met up in a restaurant in Gatwick and were introduced to the rest of the group. A little confusion at the check-in as most of us had our own diving kit with us and it weighed a bit over the limit, we explained we were divers and we were carrying dive kit. After seeing our certification cards they agreed to the extra weight and let us go.

The flight was uneventful and we soon landed at Valetta, the sun was out and it was hot, marvellous. A coach took the 9 of us to Qawra and our hotel, the Palm Court, Darren had stayed at the same hotel before and said it was acceptable, not luxurious but cheap. When we arrived we decided it definitely was luxurious, no wonder it was cheap, it would be condemned in the U.K.. Our room ,we all shared rooms, had gaps around the door frame you could see through, a couple of sheets of plasterboard were badly fixed over what? I have no idea. The patio doors didn't lock, or even shut properly. The air conditioning didn't work, even though we told them everyday and they said it would be fixed. They did offer a room with a double bed, I said I know we're mates but we're not a couple. The shower rail was held up with a bit of fishing line!! The food was OK, some was good and there was plenty of it with a wide selection, The dining room was in the basement lit with hundreds of energy saving bulbs!! The milk was all sterilised and the corn flakes were worse I have ever tasted. While we were there someone fell through a plastic roof and landed on their head!! The place has to be described as a fire trap, the maze like corridors would be impossible to navigate in smoke, several service ducts which stank of sewage, would also be great for transmitting fire.

For all you bottle collectors, this is how to roughly date your collection. Dating from the Side seams is the easiest way.

Three old seamless bottles, left - spun in mould, middle - 3PM, right - labelled 'Carne Falmouth Truro' 

Seams