Dive Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos
with Dive-In
Diving and Zen
Original text by Seija Koikkalainen
Photos Ossi Kontro
Translation Sami Koivisto
Zenobia ("Zen") is probably one of the most famous diving sites in the world; a wreck, that lies in the bottom of Mediterranean sea tilted on the port side, in front of the city of Larnaca about a mile from the shore. Zenobia is surely familiar for many divers and many more will have a chance to dive there.
An adventurous group from PSK Kupla (Diving club of the Polytechnics, BUBBLE, from Finland), consisting of seven tech dive –spirited divers, headed to investigate the Zenobia. Along were Tekniikan YLIOPILAS (STUDNT of Technology) Jani Lehmuskoski, Jussi "Deko" (Deco) Lammi, Mikko "MacMättö" (MacCram) Vuorela, Ville "Harry Potter" Jääskeläinen, Sami "Sinkku" (Single) Koivisto, Ossi "3 välipäivää" (3 rest days) Kontro and as the only female member, nagging about the male manners, me (the original writer).
A new packing style
Mikko,
Ville and Jani created a packing style, that no
doubt will be a new trend to be seen already next
summer used by a growing group of self respecting
tech divers at the latest on our annual diving camp
in Utö (the farthermost island in the southwestern
corner of Finnish territorial waters).That is, the
boys had packed all their diving gear including the
tanks (Mikko had even his weights) into self-made
carrying boxes, that misleadingly looked like the
final resting places of deceased human beings.
Jani´s box was merely so called children´s size.
Mikko´s box, though, outweighed the others reaching
the weight of almost a hundred kilos. The
impressions of the airport staff, when it came to
handling the boxes, sure was worth photographing!
After tough consideration and obvious lamenting they
finally lifted the boxes to the conveyor belt along
with the rest of the luggage. At the airport we
already met some of the staff of the Dive-In diving
center, who most kindly transported our diving gear
straight to the diving store. The pick up of the
next morning was agreed to take place at 9 am. The
lodging was arranged in the way that the four person
apartment Ossi and I were staying in the same room
(every now and then at different times) and Jussi
and Sami were in the other room (in a double bed).
The three person apartment became the "young" boy´s
bachelor pad.
On the tourist round
The next morning (Sunday) no open diners were
to be found, so we ended up at the diving store with
empty stomachs. Luckily we didn´t head to the sea
right away, so we had time to enjoy the English
breakfast in the Michael´s place next to the store.
Before us there was a Russian diving group stirring
at Zen and in the meanwhile our diving guide Chris
presented us the wreck on paper; where things could
be found and how one could have access to different
parts of the wreck.. From the store we got three
twin 10 l / 200 bar tank sets and one single 18 l
tank (for Sami) for our use. The coffin men already
had their own sets with them. Everyone dived using
Nitrox except Jussi and Sami. Just before noon we
begun to prepare for the dive with our dry
suits(except Lehmari (=Jani)), twin sets and our
light sabres, which raised great wondering and even
amusement within the staff of the diving store (most
of the other customers diver in shorts type wet
suits and with a single tank).
Chris and Martin
The local´s opinion was that the visibility on the wreck was "poor", approx. 15 m, which according to Finnish standard corresponded a visibility of over 25 m (i.e. the wreck could be seen clearly just from bellow the surface). The water temperature was 19 °C on the surface and inside the wreck a little colder (approx. 16 °C). The first dive was so called sightseeing tour, meaning that we went around the wreck passing first the superstructures of the ship to the rear propellers and from there over the starboard side back to the ascent rope in the bow. On our way we saw the restaurant entrances, the bridge from outside, radar masts, life boat station, the entrance to car deck, the huge loading ramps in the stern, the starboard propeller and several side windows, that also provided an entrance inside the wreck. With air divers already the first dive went over the deco limit. The second dive of the day took us inside the wreck. The route went through one of the side windows into the accommodation area (approx. 50 m long, partly a little tight, but luminous corridor), from where we headed to the upper car deck to see the trucks. The car deck was a spacious, but dark place. In the other end, however, loomed clearly an exit door. Right in the other end of the deck we still dived under a couple of trucks to read the English and Swedish instructions on the wall on how to park the vehicles on the deck. After everyone had penetrated out of the door in the bow side wall the group started to head still into the restaurant. Since Ossi´s computer already indicated a deco stop and also a considerable amount of gas was already consumed, me and Ossi decided to head to the ascent rope. The longer dive time then provided the others a chance to enjoy a longer deco stop in the light of the setting sun, for Jussi even above 20 min.
After the dives of
the first day the feeling was happy, but tired.
Resulting from this, after a Cyprian dinner, the
group headed to bed before 9 PM.
Video filming
On Monday we dived on the wreck on our own in
smaller teams; me and Ossi as a couple, Jussi and
Sami together and "The Penetration Boys" Mikko, Jani
and Ville as a team of three with a video camera.
Diving was enjoyable, since there was no need to
keep up with the rest of the team; now there was
enough time to check out anything that you wanted.
The visibility had improved since the last time.
With Ossi we dived through the upper car deck and
from there we headed to see the bridge and the life
boat station. On the second dive Ossi had a camera
with him. Part of the dive was spent inside the
restaurant marveling the red carpet and fidgeting
the drink vending machine (I tried to order
TEVATTEN, but nothing came out…). We also visited
inside the wheel house.
Chris
took "The Penetration Boys" (and one unknown man)
into the middle car deck and to see the entrance to
the engine room (depth 40 m and a lot of deco
time…). After the dives we participated in a
birthday party; one of the dive guides, Duncan,
offered us some chocolate cake and Mikko gave him
ceremoniously the KUPLA-t-shirt on behalf of our
diving club.
Before dinner we spent a video evening watching the video clips that boys filmed during the day. The plot consisted of penetration to the upper car deck, from there to the restaurant and finally through the accommodation area. On the way back to the ascent rope they circled via the bridge. Lehmari operated as the cameraman and in the star role was Vuorela´s arse (from which the owner was naturally extremely proud of). Also Ville had an important role in the documentary. Despite all the previous factors the video gave a quite nice picture of the wreck.
The air day eve
On Tuesday the sea was almost dead calm and
Zenobia was clearly visible already from the boat.
Ossi wanted to keep two resting days, so I dived
with Ville. We searched a route to the elevator
shaft and checked out the crew accommodation area
under the life boat station. Jussi and Sami were on
a quest to find a missing deco tank, that had
dropped earlier that morning, at 43
m (they found a Swedish fire extinguisher), wrote
strange drunk messages on the plate to each other
and tried to penetrate into the anchor chain box
(for some reason it was too tight, who knows which
body part was on the way). Mikko and Jani went for
the engine room with their reels, Jani being very
off-handed by marking their route with 50 m of rope
(they kind of searched their destination for a
while). In the afternoon the boys filmed the middle
car deck with the video camera. I myself dived into
the women´s clothing stores of Larnaca city.
Belorussians
The eve of the resting day was celebrated in
the nearby tavern, that turned out to be the hangout
of a Belorussian athletics team (the staff didn´t
show up to be locals either). Our birthday boy Jani
got an inspiration from the athletics comrades and
ordered the Belorussians (a drink) for all of us.
After dinner we familiarized ourselves to the bar
and pub
repertoire
of the promenade, our spirits developing linearly to
more cheerful direction on the way. Ville showed up
to be especially cheerful, but the others should not
be understated. As a wise man Ossi retired at 11 PM.
and was therefore already up at 7 am. next morning
when Seija just was sneaking back to the hotel room.
The wind rises
The sea was dead calm also on Wednesday, but still something swelled in the stomachs of many of our group. This means that even non diving can cause sea sickness like condition, where one feels dizzy, the head is pounding and the food don´t seem to stay inside very long. Sometimes also amnesia can be recognized among the symptoms (or if one remembers, at least wishes to forget). Therefore the expectations for the next diving day were high. Unfortunately some Higher Force decided to punish us all, even the innocent, from the morally suspicious behaviour of Tuesday evening and raised a devilish weather (10 m/s and rising). In the morning we still experienced a glimpse of hope; we managed to get out on the sea with a RIB whose seaworthiness corresponded to the level of Lolita (the smallest boat of our diving club), but we couldn´t find the surface buoys of the wreck.! Well, our boat helmsman, Youval, decided to return to harbour to ask the coordinates from Chris. The advise from Chris was, that we should wait until another diving group reaches the wreck and navigate according to them. Soon we noticed a catamaran approaching the wreck area and…cruising away almost immediately. So that´s about that option. With the famous Finnish guts we refused to give in, but demanded another start later in the afternoon.. The attempt was lousy; the RIB was filled with sea water up to the knees almost right after we had exited the cover of the breakwater, so our helmsman Martin decided to turn right back to cover instead of the option to pick up beached divers, gear sets and remains of the RIB afterwards. Anyway our disappointment was unspeakable (the pictures can speak for themselves). Ossi´s two resting days extended to three in an instant.
Disappointed
Friday was still windy and the weather was
even lousier than the day before. Now even the sun
wasn´t shining. We could forget Zenobia for now.
Also the staff of Dive-In seemed disappointed. On
our last diving day we still managed to get into the
sea. We drove about 40 km up to the north into Cape
Greco, where the wind didn´t affect straight, thanks
to high rock formations. The surge, however was that
creditable, that entering the water (not to mention
about getting off) was to say the least exciting.
The dive itself, lead by Duncan, was rather good
passing through several caverns and passages, one
being about 10 m long, in the bottom. With twin sets
the advancing inside the caverns was precise work,
since there definitely was not plenty of space inside.
With many of us either the cylinders or the fins hit
first the ceiling and then the torch had a bottom
touch to the rocks and this didn´t happen just once
or twice. Nevertheless everyone stayed firmly right
behind the diver ahead. During exiting the water the
exposing to the surge and being smashed against the
cliffs by it caused even a small injury; Ossi´s "The
Finger" was cut open (luckily only a small wound and
a shock, the bones remained intact). With consensus
the whole team decided that the diving activities
would end there. In the diving center we performed
the final cleaning and maintenance of our equipment
and even the "coffins" were already packed for
returning home.
On Friday after dinner our whole gang ended up into the Irish pub, where one could get a sweatshirt after drinking enough (2 pints) Kilkenny. This heroic goal was reached by Jussi, Ville, Mikko and Jani (and naturally this all was filmed on video). From the whole team only Lehmari, Harry Potter and Vuorela managed to continue to the "continuations", while the rest of us gave up before midnight. On Saturday the check out was already at 12 o´clock, so the day became quite long for us to wait (the flight departed at 23:36). Our day program consisted of for example visiting at MacDonald´s (request from Mikko), I myself ran away to ferret to boutiques and finally we all ended up to hang around in the "lounge" of our hotel. The last time we saw the staff of Dive-In was in the evening, when Alex, Youval and Duncan transported us to the airport along with our gear. As a whole the trip was fine and the dives at Zenobia were excellent. Each one of us have probably already reserved time from our calendars for the next tour to Larnaca to continue from where we left this time.