Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · wreck · Gozo and Malta

🇲🇹 MV Xlendi

Xatt l-Aħmar, Gozo, Malta

An 80 m ferry scuttled to make an artificial reef in 1999, which capsized on the way down and landed upside down with everything above the car deck crushed flat.

Dives here
1
Deepest
42.2 m
Water
salt
First · last
2011
Also known as
Wreck Xlendi · Wrecks of Xlendi

Revision 2 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r2 10 Oct 2026 Neutral wording · Dennis Bakhuis
  2. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

↓7 m↓11 mDrop-off 11–32 m↓37 m↓40 m↓45 m↓50 m130° Cominoland · 120 m160° Karwela · 91 m200° Xlendi · 125 mLaddersLadderKarwela bow↓39 mMV Karwela↓30 mKarwela stern↓41 mMV Xlendi, upside down↓42 mSeaward side↓44 mMV Cominoland↓35 mCar wreck↓38 mN20 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Point of interest
  • Car
  • Boat
  • Wreck
  • Shoreline
  • Depth contour
  • Dive path
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Wreck footprint
  • Depth
Site map · 7 objects · 3 paths · max 50 m

The three scuttled wrecks off Xatt l-Aħmar: MV Xlendi (80 x 12 m, upside down, 42 m shore side, 44 m sea side), MV Karwela (43 m, upright, deck 30 m, bow 39 m) and MV Cominoland (34.5 m, upright, 35–42 m), with the car wreck. Bearings from the ladders (130°, 160°, 200°), spacing (about 50 m and 60 m), depth lines and the drop-off 25 m out, checked against the maltadives.com GPS positions and the OSM MV Xlendi node; shoreline from OpenStreetMap. Contours are drawn as straight lines parallel to the shore and all positions are approximate; the Hephaestus (2022) is not shown.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

The scuttling

The MV Xlendi was an 80 m roll-on roll-off ferry, and on 12 November 1999 she was sunk deliberately off Xatt l-Aħmar on the south coast of Gozo, as one of the island's artificial reefs.

It did not go to plan. She capsized while she was going down and landed upside down. The entire structure above the car deck — bridge, accommodation, funnel — was crushed under the weight of the hull. What is left is a flat steel ceiling above the seabed with the wreck's insides inaccessible underneath it.

The dive

She lies at 42 m on the shore side and 44 m on the seaward side — deep, dark, and past the recreational limit. There is not a great deal to see by wreck standards, and what there is has to be paid for in decompression.

Dived 4 August 2011 to 42.2 m, which is what identifies her: the Karwela and the Cominoland lie nearby and both sit upright at 40 m. The Hephaestus was not scuttled here until 2022.

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

1 dive at MV Xlendi

  1. 4 Aug 2011 with Kim wreck date4 Aug 2011 depth42.2 m time46 min water—

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)