Malta DPV Diving Trip

Our small group from Mid Herts left a cold and damp Gatwick on Saturday and soon touched down in Malta for our short trip. What made this a little different from the usual blue-water dive trip was that we were signed up to complete a training course. A DPV, Diver Propulsion Vehicle, course with SSI, run by DiveSystems, a 40-year-established dive centre located in Sliema, near Valetta.

Malta in February is generally sunny but can be quite windy, and so it proved to be when we woke up the next morning. Those familiar with Malta were also surprised how green was the landscape, having had a much wetter winter than usual, not unlike the UK this year.

Our Tutor and Guide for the duration, Ricardo, picked us and our kit up at 8am and took us the 2 minute ride to their well-equipped Dive Centre on the beachside.

Paperwork completed, and with the windy conditions, Ricardo chose the sheltered inland water at Manoel Island next to Valetta for our shake-down dive.

We visited the small but largely intact wreck of a WW2 supply vessel , which had suffered a fatal torpedo attack and had tried, unsuccessfully, to make it to the docks.

Shake-down dive complete, we were briefed on the basics of DPV operation in our dive-interval by Ricardo and then on our second dive we had our first go with a DPV.

It was fun at first try, as we each clipped it on to our waist harness and pulled the trigger control to power up the propeller and felt the instant surge forward.

We all spent time getting used to controlling the DPV with one hand, while taking care of buoyancy control as the depth changed with the other. It definitely needed care as otherwise on stopping you could find yourself sinking or rising quickly and having to make a rapid adjustment! A balancing act of which some took a while longer to get the hang!

Having had our first DPV dive, we enjoyed an excellent meat feast at Little Argentina, on recommendation from Ricardo, located close to our hotel, followed by a visit to a local bar behind the hotel serving Guinness and full of chatty locals.

Day Two - the wind was still blowing but Ricardo thought it would be diveable so we headed north to Cirkewwa, next to the Ferry Terminal for Gozo departures. 

Here we carefully entered via the slipway into the waves and surging water at Suzy's Pool, named by Peter Lemon after his wife. Today, however, we thought it resembled more like a washing machine than a pool!

Once again, we took to our DPVs and were more confident in using them and scootered our way to the P29 wreck in pretty good visibility of around 10m.

Unfortunately, with the combined challenges of entry and DPV control, not all the group had sufficient air to enter the wreck this time, so we returned after a brief inspection of the outside.

Getting out of Suzy's "washing machine" proved quite hard work as the swell had increased. We managed successfully without any incidents, however it was decided that a second dive here would not be wise.

So we headed to Popeye Village nearby, but could see from the truck that it was equally rough, so we reluctantly returned to base.

The group split up at that point with some electing not to do a second dive, but to start the DPV Theory work instead. However, Tanya and James were definitely up for a second go with the DPVs, so Ricardo took us back to Manoel Island.

The vis was poor, but with just 3 of us that wasn't an issue as we zipped about with our DPVs and really got quite accomplished at controlling them, including on full power!

Another nice dinner, this time at Peppi's - over the road from the Plaza hotel - rounded off the day and we headed once again to the bar behind the hotel where we sampled the local wine while completing our DPV theory lesson on the SSI app. It was a comprehensive course of 130 pages, multiple quizzes to get through, and a 25-question final exam to pass.

Day 3 dawned and we looked at the weather, which seemed to be a bit less breezy than the prior days.

We set off north again, but could see that Sue's "washing machine" was on full-spin, so we headed to Popeye Village again. This looked much better with the changed wind direction and we took the plunge.

Popeye Village was created for the Popeye Hollywood movie many years ago and is now an amusement park for kids. The Popeye bay is sheltered and sandy with many boulders and a large cavern to explore, as well as a huge anchor and chain, also created for the film.

The vis was great and we all had a good go with our DPVs, navigating the boulders in formation and parking them while we explored the cavern with torches on.

Once again, the group divided with just Tanya, James and Trevor electing to do a second dive in the bay. We found the Popeye Anchor and explored along the coast, including going on full power for a while; great fun but the higher speed makes for a rapid cooling effect even in a dry-suit so we had to revert to a slower pace to end the dive.

At the recommendation of Simon, owner of DiveSystems, we booked the best place on the island for the local culinary specialty, Rabbit.

In fact, Simon joined us there. The roast rabbit was delicious (and plentiful). Much reminiscing and chatting with Simon over local wines and digestives rounded off the last day very well.

So ended our little trip to Malta. We all passed the DPV certification with flying colours and can now consider hiring one for a day or two on future dive trips. Very handy for reaching wrecks further from the shore, or just for a bit of fun!

Thanks to Clive for a great job as Dive Organiser, and to Simon and Ricardo at DiveSystems for making it work in challenging conditions. 

Footnote. 
As a homage to the late, great, Peter Lemon, we attempted to recreate a couple of pictures from his Malta dive book at Cirkewwa.