Greece Diving in February...

[hal9000]

Gday all

Looking at finding myself in Athens for about 4 days in February '09. As a result, I have a couple of questions regarding whatever diving I can do.

1) Is it worth diving in February in Greece at all?
2) How far do you need to travel from Athens to get to good diving (wreck, reef, as long as there is something to see and its underwater, i'm happy)
3) would it be worth staying on one of the islands instead of the mainland?

Cheers

 

[Alan Mayfield]

Hello,

I lived in Athens from 2002 to 2006 and have been an instructor since 1975. I love diving and while I lived there and worked at the US Embassy, I taught classes and dove throughout the year. So, I have a pretty good idea about what you can expect in that area.

The water is crystal clear and you can see forever, but there is nothing to see. There are very few fish and no coral. I dove around Athens and we did find a nice ship wreck nearby, but even there, the fish were not to be found. I dove out of a shop in a suburb of Athens called Papagou. The owner was named Theophyllis. His phone number was 210-654-0254. Tell him that Alan from the US Embassy told you to contact him. He knows how to get to the one wreck we found. It is a ship that was loading cement and it split in half and sunk in about 50 feet of water. The Crow's nest is sticking out of the water still. There isn't much to penetrate, but you can swim around it and check it out. The ship was called the Euro Bulker and it sunk in the early 2000's.

Other than that, there is very little to see around Athens. A lot of places are off-limits because of the archeological artifacts in the water and the SCUBA police patrol the areas and will take all your gear if they catch you diving there.
The islands are a little better. A few fish to see. My favorite is the island of Santorini. I tell people that it is where Atlantis was. The entire end of the island was blown off centuries ago and you can now dive in the caldera and with a little imagination you can see the road signs pointing to Atlantis on the bottom.

Another interesting dive I made there was on the island of Corfu. Again, not much to see, but we were making a wreck dive and when we got to the bottom, the wreck looked just like the dive boat we had just jumper off of. There are more fish to see around the islands, but still not a lot. Some of the islands prohibit diving and all of them that do allow diving have places that are off-limits.

Overall, with your trip planned for February, you would have to love diving as much as I do, to go to the bother of bringing your own stuff to dive around Athens. To be a good dive, I ask for three things 1. Clear water 2. warm water and 3. Something to see. Well, there in Athens in February you will have number 1 and no number 2 or 3. But again, as bad a picture as I am painting, I still was diving 3 to 4 weekends a month while I was there.

Good luck and let me know if you decide to do it and let me know what you thought of it. Oh, by the way, I found all three of my desires at Sharm El-Sheikh in the Red Sea. I have been there twice while living in Athens and would go back again tomorrow, if I had the chance.

Talk to you later. You can send me a note at my yahoo address....alanmayfield@yahoo.com

Later.


Alan

 

[hal9000]

Gday Alan

Cheers for the pointers.

Sharm El Sheikh? Camel Dive? Wrecks or reef, and hows the marine inhabitants

 

[hal9000]

Gday Alan

Cheers for the pointers.

Sharm El Sheikh? Camel Dive? Wrecks or reef, and hows the marine inhabitants

 

[Alan Mayfield]

Sharm....where can I begin. First of all, I have been diving and teaching since 1975. In spite of that, I haven't been to all that many places that were remarkable, but Sharm was. On my first trip in 2003, I dove with a dive shop called Red Sea Diving College. They were outstanding in every way. I was allowed to dive the profiles I wanted. I made most of my dives between 80 and 100 feet, but one day I dove with some friends that were a couple of days behind me and we dove in 40 to 60 feet and on every dive, there was tons of stuff to see. Fish everywhere and coral everywhere. The reefs start at about 5 feet down and gradually drop down past where I was diving. And your neck hurt looking at all the stuff. I bragged about it to my buddies in Athens and then we planned a return trip to do a liveaboard from the same place called the VIP ONE. A couple of months before we returned, I dove at Aqaba, Jordan. I was disappointed because there wasn't coral and fish everywhere. The dives there were beach dives and I would swim across a lot of sand then some coral and fish and then more sand.

I kept thinking that my memory was enhancing the diving at Sharm. But on the return on the VIP ONE, it all was there. Fish and coral everywhere. We made 4 to 6 dives a day and they were to the same spots I had dove a couple of years earlier. One of my buddies had done a lot of diving in the Carribean and he said it was the best he had ever seen also.

And there is a wreck called the Thistlegorm. It was a British supply ship that sunk the first week of WWII. It was carrying tanks and trucks and supplies to Cairo and a German plane bombed it and it sunk. Cousteau found it in the 70's and it is amazing. You swim through cargo holds full of trucks and ammo and other supplies. You swim through the Captain's quarters and see his bathtub. There were two locomotives on the deck that were thrown off when the ship sunk that are in the sand a short distance from the wreck. The bad thing is that on both times I was there, the currents were too bad to swim to them from the main wreck. But it is an amazing sight.

There were turtles at several sights and tons of fish. They talk about BIG fish being in the area, but I didn't see any on either trip. They may be there, but they were hidding from me both times.

I would HIGHLY recommend diving there and I would recommend Red Sea Diving College and their Live aboard the VIP ONE. The service is excellent and the crew friendly and knowledgable about the sites. There is a publication in the US called Undercurrrent. They publish a 10 to 15 page newsletter monthly. They accept no advertisements and tell the true story about dive operations. Before my first trip to Sharm, I looked at their Factbook and saw a couple of reports about other shops in Sharm and both of them complained about their experiences and said that the next time they would dive with Red Sea Diving College. That told me that they were first class. I did see the Camel Dive Center around the corner from Red Sea, but I didn't check them out. I have heard nothing good or bad about them, so they may be good, but I know that Red Sea did a fine job both times I was there and I would go back again in a minute. Why don't you send me a note to my yahoo account and I can send you some photos. It is alanmayfield at yahoo dot com. I can give you more details that way. Let me know if you make it down there. And I would go there over Athens in a heartbeat. No comparison.


Alan PADI 6009

 

[solensdotter]

Interesting thread, since I will be in Athens in early March.
Alan, the way I'm reading you is that it is not really worth lugging the gear over, even though I do, in the meantime, have a drysuit, so #2 is not much of an issue anymore.
Too bad, somehow I had pictured diving Greece as much more interesting than described...

 

[hal9000]

Cheers Alan for the info on diving at the Sharm.

All pointers lead to diving in Greece in Feb being a disappointing experience so may focus elsewhere. Have had a couple of mates who dived Egypt recommend Sharm but none could remember the name of the shop so good to see one with a rating.

 

[nikcre]

The only good thing about Greece-diving is that you are only 1 hour flight from Egypt.

 

[solensdotter]

So, unless I have time to head down to Egypt, it sounds like there is little to no dissent: don't bother schlepping the gear to Greece...
Thanks for the feedback. Not happy, but at least informed!

 

[macagnig]

HI !
I am travelling to Greece in april 09 and was also planning for a couple of days out diving. So, in case that i still keep my diving plans after reading Alan's comment, would you recomend any Diving Center.

I've been to Dahab, a bit north of Sharm. Fully agree with Alan : Red Sea is the best . I've been to the Coral Reef in Australia and to Galapagos and choose the Red Sea by far.
With respecto to the Thistlegorm, I had to cancel the dive because of bad weather and did not have any extra days : so I would recommend to try to do it as soon as you get there.