Zenobia

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Searcaigh

Seahorse Wrangler
Staff member
ScubaBoard Supporter
Messages
11,092
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Location
Dubai, UAE
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Currently in Cyprus during the "Eid Al Fitr" holiday and enjoying a week's holiday here in the cooler climes of Cyprus.

Larnaca is only a 4 hour flight from Dubai so we decided to head here instead of SE Asia as the UAE temps hit 40C over the past week.

My plan was to stay at Laranca and dive for at least two days on the Zenobia as we had other plans outside of diving. I chose to dive with Alpha Divers as they appeared to have a decent reputation online and some personal feedback from a couple of other people sealed the deal.

First of all the wreck;

full


MS Zenobia was a Swedish built Challenger-class RO-RO ferry launched in 1979 that capsized and sank in the Mediterranean sea, close to Larnaca, Cyprus, in June 1980 on her maiden voyage.

It now sits in 42m off the port of Larnaca and provides a great dive site with incredible visibility. During my visit it was around 20m horizontally. All sorts of diving can be undertaken here including penetration of the wreck

More can be read here

Alpha Divers are based just on the outskirts of Larnaca and in fact are around 8 Km from where I am currently staying (Radisson Blu). They do pass the hotel on the way to the marina, but I opted to go to the dive centre first to sort out my gear, which is loaded into the back of a pick up truck or in a trailer and then taken to the marina where everyone pitches in to unload and load the boat.

Chris, who runs Alpha Divers, has a good team of guys working with him right now, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. It should be said that some other dive ops do share boats for the dive on Zenobia, and each boat has its own mooring spot.

Divers are buddied according to their experience level. By chance another diver from Dubai was doing a tech course, let's call him Paul. So on Day 1 I was buddied with Paul and an instructor Ludo and more of less hung out with them to take photos etc., as we did the bow area first then the stern on the second dive.

On Day 2, Paul was buddied with another instructor Olay, and for the first dive I was buddied with another guy Ian, and we accompanied them to the bottom where the trucks are all laying on top of each other at 40m then did our own thing back to the surface.

During the second dive we did a penetration dive which took us to a (stale) air pocket, and advised not to breath the air in it. Some empty wine bottles were in there!

Some of the spaces were a bit tight, but we all made it through.

Some of the photos can be viewed here
 
Awesome! When are you gonna hit the "new" Ines? I want to see some pictures of that!
 
I want to see some pictures of that!

Send me some money to dive it :D Simon charges twice what Glenn used to.

Actually I'm surprised that anyone is allowed out into the "tanker parking area" considering what happened two weeks ago. Moreso XR Hub, whose customers are mainly RB pilots, but maybe the coastguard cleared the boat after no limpet mines were found.
 
I used Dive Stop in Protaras for the Zenobia back in May. Good, and recommend. Everyone seems to tag out into a handful of larger boats that regularly do the Zen.

‘Twas a little chilly, but had a great time. Would definitely like to get back and do more.
 
I'm heading to Cyprus next week and the dive centre I'm in contact with has offered 2 dives to Zenobia. I am not trained to penetrate closed spaces. Is it worth going there if I only stay outside of the ship?
 
I'm heading to Cyprus next week and the dive centre I'm in contact with has offered 2 dives to Zenobia. I am not trained to penetrate closed spaces. Is it worth going there if I only stay outside of the ship

The ship is huge, and from a diving perspective on the outside there is a lot to see, especially at the bottom where all the trucks are laying on top of each other.

One dive to cover the bow section and another to cover the stern.

We used EAN 28 for all the dives, bottom is 42M.
 
I'm heading to Cyprus next week and the dive centre I'm in contact with has offered 2 dives to Zenobia. I am not trained to penetrate closed spaces. Is it worth going there if I only stay outside of the ship?

Yes, absolutely. It's a huge ship, and you don't need to penetrate or tickle the bottom. There are a few areas where it's "in a window, and straight up out another window" so there is no obstruction. Nitrox is wonderful if you have it, if not it is still very doable on air.

Absolutely recommended location... I'd like to go back actually.
 
I need to go back to shoot macro, I tried not to, but couldn't help but notice nudibranchs, which with a 10-17mm lens was not good for me.
 
Concerning the Zenobia and Cyprus in general, which are the best months in terms of visibility? From Italy it's relatively cheap to go there by low cost plane, so if the visibility is good all over the year I might consider going also in months when it's less crowded. It's likely anyway that the best visibility would be in summer from May to August or late summer/early Autumn like September or even October
 
TBH the Zenobia is the only decent dive in Cyprus. It's certainly not an island to visit for great diving however the number of schools and benign conditions make it ideal for training.
 
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