On the 4th June 2016 11 divers set off for the small Island of Gozo. The expedition was made up of various ranks from Private to Captain. All were looking forward to progressing their diver training, refresh their skills or just get back in the water.
My participation on the expedition came about due to working as a civilian aircraft maintenance fitter within an Army Air Corps Squadron. The 2IC of the squadron and I have known each other for well over ten years having served together whilst I was a REME aircraft technician in the regular Army (and had dived together on many expeditions previous). He asked if I would consider coming on the expedition as an instructor if my reserve unit agreed.
The team departed Luton airport for Malta and boarded the ferry for the quick hop over to the small island of Gozo. Our stay for the duration of the trip was the small fishing village of Marsalforn where we would be diving under the guidance of the Calypso diving company. The main purpose was to progress 6 of the team members from BSAC Open Water Divers to Sports Divers. Most of the 6 had only just qualified so were all fresh and ready for the challenges of the next few days.
The first dive of the trip was taken at the small and sheltered Xwenji bay. This was to be a shallow shakeout dive to test equipment and to ensure everyone was on the same page before some adventurous diving. The next three days consisted of getting all the students through all the skills, drills and lessons needed to undertake their final assessments and exam. A number of theory lessons took place after the days diving, mostly fuelled by caffeine with the students soon realising that diving can be quite tiring, or perhaps it was the smooth tones of Dave's delivery!
Midway through the week, with the written exam completed and the open water rescue skills test passed, all the open water students were now fully qualified BSAC Sports Divers. This was not only a good thing for the students to achieve but also meant the last two days we could progress with some more challenging diving.
On the Thursday we boarded a local dive charter boat and left Marsalforn with the wreck of the P31 in our sights.
The P31 was a former German minesweeper/patrol boat decommissioned in 2004 and bought by the Maltese tourism authority. She was cleaned and scuttled on the 25th August 2009 off the island of Comino at a depth of 18 meters (59ft) to serve as a dive site and artificial reef.
For many this was their first experience of wreck diving and for some turned out to be their most favourite dive of the week. The nature of the wreck allows divers to swim through corridors and rooms to explore its interior including the bridge and the lower holds. It is also home to quite a variety of marine life such as schools of Damsel fish, a very poisonous and grumpy Scorpion fish and some Morey eels.
After a break at the Blue Lagoon we moved around the coast to Comino Caves. Due to the limestone rocks this dive involves many swims through natural arches and caverns and gave some very impressive light displays from the sunlight piercing the holes in the rocks above. Towards the end of the dive we also had the opportunity to feed some of the local fish life from the bottom of the bay, this brought hundreds of hungry fish in to feed from the divers below.
The final days diving loomed and with some despondent (and by now quite tired) looks we set off by minibus for our last two dives of the week. Unknown to many these would prove to be the icing on the cake for a great weeks diving.
Our frist dive was at a site known locally as The Inland Sea sometimes called Qawra in Maltese. It is a lagoon of seawater on Gozo linked to the Mediterranean through an opening formed by a narrow natural arch. It was probably formed where a geological fault in the limestone had created a sea cave and the roof then collapsed.
On one side there is a gently shelving stony beach with several fishermen's huts. The boats are often pulled up on to the stony beach. The bottom of the lagoon is also mostly pebbles and rocks and is fairly shallow. As you exit through the tunnel towards open sea, the floor drops away in a series of shelves to a depth of up to 35 metres on the outside. Jacques Cousteau himself said the Inland Sea was among his top ten dives! This was a challenging dive with some of the deepest depth progression thus far so divers had to be aware of possible decompression penalties if not carefully dived. The dive was a “wall dive” where you follow the sea wall along and observe the fish life around it. There was an abundance of fish life including some medium sized Jackfish (like small tuna) and two large Octopus. The dive was also made slightly more difficult by having to return into the sea current which meant a little bit more energetic finning was required from all divers.
The final dive of the week was my personal favourite and a bucket list also. The Blue Hole and Azure Window is an iconic Gozo dive. It is reached by walking over ancient coral limestone rocks. The divers entered the water from the blue hole itself and descended through a natural chimney and down out into approx 18 metres of water. They then moved over some spectacular rock formations with many fish such as parrot fish, jacks and more swimming around them. We then ventured around the back of the Azure Window and were greeted with some spectacular light displays breaking through the natural arch above as we progressed over to the seaward side entrance of the blue hole at around 10 meters. Once in the blue hole we explored a large cave at the back of the hole where more fish and one very large moray eel greeted before our final ascent of the week.
Our last few minutes ascending were spent coming up through the blue hole where we could see the tourists and fellow divers above all swimming and looking down at us below. This gave us all a time to reflect on the challenges that we faced during 5 days of diving. Much was achieved with 1 Ocean Diver, 5 Sports Divers and 1 Dive Leader qualification as well as my practical and theory lessons towards Advanced Diver completed.
The exercise allowed me to complete a significant part of my training and gain experience towards my aspiration of completing my SADS course. Hopefully in time it will allow me to plan, organise and run other exercises and share some of my fantastic experiences with my colleagues in the reserves.
Pvt John Parsons RAMC, attached to 157 Regt RLC Army Reserve Cardiff.
