I Dive! You Dive?
ZENOBIA WRECK
The Zenobia is an amazing dive, loads of fish follow you throughout the dive. You can access the bridge and the anchor room but I enjoyed being outside sitting in the lifeboats. The best thing about this dive was the visibility - truly amazing. I could see the wreck clearly from the dive boat on the surface. More about one of the World's best wreck Dives & wreck training.
HMS CRICKET
The wreck of a WW2 Gunboat which survived the war and was subsequently bombed by the RAF in 1947 close to Larnaca bay. Like many warships, HMS Cricket lies upside down and can be penetrated and swum under as the currents have created a sandy dip beneath her. 33 metres.
Mushroom Rocks
This is a deep dive where there are curious rock formations in the shape of huge mushroom heads. Very large fish have been seen here. Only for serious divers due to the depths involved. 50 metres
Octopus Reef
As the name suggests, if you want to see octopuses, this is the place to come. We spend approximately 50 minutes swimming around this excellent shallow site spotting schools of octopus, barracuda, jacks and the many smaller fish that live in the huge clumps of Poseidonia seaweed to be found in this area. We have also dived with dolphins and huge sea turtles at this site. 10 metres
Sheep Dip
A wonderful site with many rock gardens and soft coral formations. The fish life is abundant and octopuses can be seen swimming freely here. Depths vary from the shore walk in. Up to 16 metres
NEW WRECK Dive Site: Champagne Wreck
Location: 500m south of the Zenobia, 10 minutes from Larnaca, Cyprus
Description: Russian yacht
Length: 20 metres (65 feet)
Depth:
Visibility: 20 metres (65 feet)
Rating: ***
This is a 20 metre yacht that sank approx. 8-10 years ago and was found by Chris Martin on a very clear September morning coming back from the Zenobia. He was the one who named it 'The Champagne' because he said he "could've popped a cork when he found it". They are the only dive centre who know where this wreck is as the marker buoy was laid at 5 metres below the surface and they use the GPS to find the location.
NEW WRECK Dive Site: WHITE STAR
For years Cyprus has been regarded as a one-attraction destination by divers, albeit that attraction was a great big wreck. But things are starting to change, reports John Liddiard |
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ON THE AFTERNOON OF MY FIRST DAY in Cyprus, I dive a wreck. This wreck is not the Zenobia.
The White Star was a Cypriot-owned fishing vessel that had been partially stripped and then abandoned in the harbour at Paphos, becoming derelict and sinking after water entered through cracks in the hull. The vessel was raised and made good so that it could be towed to Limassol to be scrapped, but sank while under tow on 18 February, 2007. Finding the wreck means using techniques that must have been employed in this part of the world for thousands of years - transits, and looking over the side.
Only 14m below, in typically perfect Mediterranean visibility, the hull of the wreck can be clearly seen against the fields of dark seagrass. I arrange to flop in early to get some photographs inside the wreck before everyone else arrives. The White Star was less than 30m long, so there is only a limited amount of inside to see. Two sets of steps from the main deck lead to a combined lounge and galley area and to the engine-room.
For me, the choice is easy. I head for the engine-room. This is not a wreck that has been sanitised for divers. At the bottom of the steps, the entrance is guarded by a tangle of electrical cabling that dangles across the way. I am half-tempted to get my shears out. Clearing the obstruction would simplify entry and make it safer, but it would also destroy the visibility inside. I push through the best gap I can find, holding my forearm up to brush cables clear of my pillar-valve.
PLENTY OF LIGHT ENTERS from behind me and through a small hatch in the roof. I don't even need my dive light to help focus my camera. Even so, I take care with my buoyancy, to minimise the silt and dirt I will inevitably disturb in such a small space.
On either side is a diesel engine. Then, at the end of an alleyway between this pair, a separate generator is located against the bulkhead at the stern. Turning, I see gauges for the engines lined up against the forward bulkhead beside the stairway from which I came.
Having had the first hole to myself, I head forward 10m or so to the other steps to the lounge and galley area.
A line has already been tied to the railing, leading to an instructor and student doing a wreck speciality course. In these circumstances, I have not bothered with lines, but it's good to see the course being taught thoroughly.
All too often, I meet divers whose instructors have been lazy about this part of their training.
As in the engine-room, plenty of light comes in through the entryway, and through a hatch in the deck at the aft bulkhead. This has a tight spiral staircase leading up to it, though the hole is far too small for a diver with cylinder attached. I just stay at the entrance and take a few pictures of the divers working with the line inside. Entering any further would only mess up their training.
On the seabed below the stern, I am pleased to see that the two bronze propellers have been left in place, even if they do have more dings than my local dive club's outboard motors.
A fine covering of hydroids is already well established over the blades, unless the growth was already underway from the time the White Star spent in harbour at Paphos.
Higher up across the stern, Cyrillic lettering is still raised on the steel from the White Star's former guise as the Ivana Ivanova, in the Russian Black Sea fishing fleet. I find the Plimsoll marks similarly raised below the bow.
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