The bad whether conditions that came over Malta these past few months created a lot of doubts: Doubts on whether the sea is safe enough to enjoy and allow for discoveries.
In turn, many doubts arose as to whether the production for X'Qala' l-Bahar would continue for its 5th season.
As Vincent Van Gogh once said; "The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore". With these values, the X'Qala' l-Bahar crew continued to sail, dive and explore beyond these dangers.
For its 5th season, Pablo Micallef, Sarah Mercieca together with X'Qala' l-Bahar's new crew member Nirvana Azzopardi are to provide the ultimate maritime documentary. Explorations, historical discoveries, safaris, diving on shipwrecks and delicious Mediterranean food are all part of the elements this year. Of course, the crew's captain, responsible for producing all programmes continues to be no other than Emi Farrugia. 
The love for the underwater world and all the sea has to offer is common between all presenters. Different in their own kind and knowledgeable in different areas, together, they produce the ultimate documentary that keeps its viewers stuck to the screen.
Although Pablo Micallef has presented X'Qala' l-Bahar since 2007, the presenter believes that every dive and episode is a new experience. In X'Qala' l-Bahar we often see Pablo below the sea's surface rather than above it.
This is because the presenter is responsible for its quests, discoveries, adventures and explorations of all that lies meters beyond meters under the sea's surface.
Following his successful contributions in the MV Glenorchy discovery, Pablo Micallef focuses on a new challenge this year.
"St. Paul came to Malta less than 2000 years ago. It has always been one of my life missions to discover any remains of the ship, and I believe that this year 'Anno Paolino', as dedicated to the apostle himself, couldn't be more of a good time.
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The new face of the crew Nirvana Azzopardi, is responsible for the most commonly liked part of the programme: Food.
X'Qala' l-Bahar offers live recipes from the most prestigious and well-known Mediterranean restaurants around Malta and Gozo.
"Like most of our viewers, this too is my favourite part. I get to learn from the most experienced chefs around the islands, and better yet get a taste of it too!" Besides this however, Nirvana has also adopted the role of interviewing diving, maritime and archaeological experts.
In X'Qala' l-Bahar's fourth season, we rarely saw Sarah dive. During the production of the programe however, the 
presenter became more and more interested to give it a shot.
Surely enough, Sarah can now dive, and is experiencing the most mystical scenes the underwater world has to offer.
So what made the once known interviewee on X'Qala' l-Bahar want to dive? "I always loved swimming as a young girl. Like a fish, I would explore the sea for hours on end. Learning how to dive on a maritime documentary has been a dream come true".
With 30 years of diving experience, and numerous wreck discoveries under his belt, there is no other person that can bring more knowledge to X'Qala l-Bahar.
To date, Emi has found the HMS Stubborn, HM Eddy, HMS St. Angelo, HMS Hellespont, the S-31, a German e-boat, HMS Russell, HMS Ohio, and the HMS Luciston.
These wrecks were found in Maltese territorial waters. MV Dorset, and Marin Sanudo were found outside of Malta. Emi was also part of the team who found the HMS Manchester, and most recently, the MV Glenorchy.
Besides wreck discovery Emi has also been involved in scuttling projects, like the scuttling of Um El Faroud and the Imperial Eagle, as well as AFM patrol boats like the P-29, which was scuttled recently. He is currently in the final stages of organisation for the scuttling of the P-31. Emi is also a well-known documentary producer, as executive producer of Dinja Ohra, and ofcourse,
X'Qala l-Bahar, co-producer of documentaries which have appeared on National Geographic and Discovery, and part of the team who produced Gozo, the hidden gem of the Mediterranean, in collaboration with the Ministry for Gozo.
Emi Farrugia has also recorded the deepest dive by a Maltese living in Malta, at an incredible 115 metres.
