Another Warm Water Dive - I could get used to this! July 12, 2006
Posted by wannabemermaid in : Life, The Universe And Everything , 1 comment so farThis is just going to be a quick catch up as I have been rather lazy and not updated my site in a while. Still I couldn’t move on without mentioning a rather spectacular couple of dives on the Zenobia!
I went out to Cyprus with my family on holiday for a week but by day 3 I had had enough of lounging on beaches and pottering in the sea - anyone who knows me will probably be suprised that I managed to stay still even that long! So I searched out our local dive centre (not quite such a treck as the one in Tenerife) and asked about diving the Zenobia - having realised from YD that it was something of a ‘must do’ in Cyprus. After spending some time explaining to my family just why it was worth quite so much money and utimately how it was my money anyway (it wouldn’t be a family holiday if everyone didn’t bicker after all!) I signed up for a trip the following day.
As ever with diving we had an early start. We drove up to Larnaca and joined about a dozen other people in lugging kit onto a big converted barge which took us out to the dive site. It was a nice base to dive from but apparently less than half full, I really wouldn’t want to have tried it at maximum capacity with divers and kit everywhere.
Unfortunately I had a rather nasty shock when I first jumped in and air started pouring out of my rented BC, I clearly hadn’t checked it well enough because when I manged to get to the boat and hang on I discovered that the connection between the jacket and hose was broken and would never hold air. Fortunately the boat had a spare BC so I rekitted with that and off we went.
Descending down the shotline was amazing as the wreck loomed out of the gloom as we moved towards it. We knelt on the side of the hull to adjust all our kit and aclimatise for a while and get used to the awesome size of the ship. Then we swam out over the deck, it’s incredible to see the lorries still strapped in, I think it was only then that the sheer size of the vessel really struck me. We swam slowly over the deck and around the stern then back along the other side. There were a whole multitude of fish over the wreck and all sorts of interesting windows to peer in. We moved along to the bow having a quick look through the hatch into the canteen and back over the lorry deck. By this stage I was starting to get a little chilly and air and no-deco time were both starting to get low so we headed back to the shot and ascended up that. At our 5m safety stop we could just see the dak shape of the ship below us - very cool!
We spent the surface interval lounging around on deck and trying to decide whether we were pleased or annoyed that the sun had gone in and discussing the dive. My buddy wanted to use his full face mask on the second dive so we had a quick run through of how that worked, how to remove it and out of air procedures. Our guide asked if we wanted to do a swim through and we both decided we’d like to try it.
Then it was time to get back in the water! As before we descended down the shotline and followed a similar route around the ship - it was still absolutely amazing. However it quickly became apparent that our guide was having prroblems with her BC inflate and was disconnecting and reconnecting it. She evenaully gave up and left it disconnected and used her drysuit for bouyancy, unfortunately that was rather leaky so she ended up making sure she stayed above the hull of the ship rather than off to the side and there was no chance of doing a swim through. So, slightly dissapointing but these things happen. We ended up by sitting on the side of the hull taking some pictures and having to shoo the swarms of fish out of the photos!
It later transpired that our guides BC had been automatically inflating itself which is why she had disconnected it. I wondered at that stage why she hadn’t then used the oral inflate on the jacket but in fairness it hadn’t occurred to me when we were actually under the water either.
I am not going to mention the dive school here because I think they were all lovely people but they seemed to be having a bit of an off-day with their kit and I hope it isn’t generally representative of their standard of maintainance. Despite this I had a great day and the food served on the boat on the way back was spectacular! Definately a trip where it is worth being first in the water so you are first out and halfway into your first serving of lunch before anyone else gets to it!
Just a couple of piccies - Thanks Martin for e-mailing them to me.
Me! over the hull Martin, my buddy Our guide swimming out to the bow
