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The Crew. (Click the pic)
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Well it's that time of the year again. It's known to me as the
"Jolly Boys Day Out", or even a week at least. Generally
it is a choice between Oban, Scapa or even the Red Sea, this year
it was Cyprus. Even in February the weather is fantastic, it gets
hotter by the day. We used The Dive-ln Centre,
run by Chris Demetriou. It is situated conveniently close to our
hotel and only yards from the
sea. The main attraction in this area is the wreck of the Zenobia, a Swedish roll-on, roll-off
ferry which sank in 1980; apparently due to a computer problem!
Heading from Sweden to Syria, she was on her maiden voyage at the
time.
The wreck site is
just a 10 minute boat journey from the port of Larnaca. The
Zenobia is one of the most popular wreck dives in the
Mediterranean, boasting of its size, water temperature and
clarity.
The top of the wreck sits at 16 metres and the maximum depth is
43 metres. The ferry had 104 fully loaded articulated lorries on board when she
went down, and many of these can still be seen along the wrecks
halls and decks. Certain portions of the wreck are firm favourites,
such as the two huge propellers, the bridge, the Cafeteria (check
the mural pictures on the lobby wall before entering the bar
area), the anchor and the bow thrusters.
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Glen and Mark on the
trapezium
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Because of its depth and enormous size, my buddy and myself
decided to hire a pair of very expensive to buy scooters. Just the
job for flying around the entire ship twice, briefly parking up
now and again to have a photo shoot and explore before circling
around the shot line in a spiral pattern until we reached the
trapezium bar where we could rest and complete our decompression
stops.
Also in that week we dived a Navy vessel called "HMS
Cricket" which lies up side down at 30 metres. A very
enjoyable dive, which provides a break from diving the Zenobia.
The crew and
myself would like to thank John and Mo Fuller for the organization
of such an enjoyable Jolly Boys, a great time was had by all,
where to next?
Article by Glen Halsey
BSAC branch 14
Some selected links for you:
BSAC
Travel Club - Dive-In, Larnaca
A
nightmare and two awards for bravery on the Zenobia (Diver 1994)
A
little history and photos from when she was afloat
More of Glen's photos here.
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