Last week's Zenobia Trip

Rob Jones · 29th April 2005, 19:15

Hi all,

Last week saw a 12-strong 4-day trip to Cyprus, to dive the ever-popular Zenobia. Organised by Mark Powell, the party comprised both OC tech-divers, some renowned and revered Inspiration afficionados, and one KISS fan, in the form of Finbar Taylor (whose home-page report makes an excellent read).

The gang got some cracking dives in, despite last-minute boat changes and a 1st day of good-old British-type weather! A few of the folks also trialled the Torpedo DPV, with good reorts. The Inspiration boys also got into the engine-room.

We at Dive-Tek were pleased to host the gang, and received some glowing reports, and look forward to welcoming them back. If you want to get on the next gig, Mark Powell is organising now, so contact him fast at: www.dive-tech.co.uk. The gang will be reserving places already, especially those who didn't make the engine room!

ATB

AndyP · 30th April 2005, 00:05

Here ya go, I have pretty much given up writing trip reports, but to back Rob up I'll have a go, to give a clue this is the same trip that Fin has written about.

Day 1,

Arrive in cyprus after the usual airport nightmare, Cyprus Airways give an extra 20Kg's for divers, this is OK until you realise that the unit (Inspiration) minus tins, plus a dry suit and necessary bits i.e. fins comes to more than 40 kilos, so I wear the rest, yes I have a jacket on that contains roughly 25 kilos of bits, plus a carry on bag that has got to be another 10~12 still, by using the, one hides round the corner whilst the other checks in technique we get away without any excess baggage charge. Rob and Dave (god bless there cottons) are there with there pick up, plus Mark Powell with the hire car. Rob, by the look on his face has just had a luggage reality check, 8 divers including 3 rebreather boys, have a shed load of luggage, somehow it gets loaded and off we go. Beer and cookies.

Day2,

Awake to a poo day, this is OK, I live in Engalnd, I'm used to it, the sea looks calm and we meet the, errr, boat. By the time all the kit is on, this is 3 Inspos, 1 KISS and 6 twin sets the boat has sunk a foot in the water, no problem, off we go, it's a smig choppy, but I have been in a lot worse, kit up on a bench that is a tincy bit smaller than my buttocks, which is, to be honest awkward, in one pitch two of the divers land on the floor. It takes a whole 10 mins to get from the harbour to the Zenobia, I am used to punching out 3+ hours in a force 3~4, this is heaven.

The Zenobia is supposed to be in 42M of water, so Mark and I plan to use this first dive to take a look and decide where we will go in, and decide what gas to use. Over a few dives we have kinda settled into a routine in the water, we hop in sort out the video camera and set about our plan. This lasts about 10 nano seconds, the first juicy entrance is just too tempting to bear and we swim the length of one of the lorry decks. It is at this point I have to mention, if you are into wreck penetration, this is a must do wreck, simply fantastic. On this dive we entered the deck under an artic from the back, the first thing you notice is what looks like a window in the distance, we amble along looking around at the lorrys and bits and slowly the window gets bigger. Bear in mind this wreck is 175M long, by the time we arrive at the other end (about 20~25 mins) the window has become a door which we duly exit from. Go to the left a bit, up a bit and we go into the restaurant. If you go to the top, go further in past the toilets, there is another cracking swim thru which takes you right through the deck. Fantastic. Pootle about a bit more, and then hit the shot. Our average depth was less than 30M, deco, even after an hour and 15 mins was a whole 17 mins. I now love this wreck.

Dive 2 for the day was canned because the skipper reconed it was rough, it wasn't.

Day 3,
A new boat, bigger, better, but no kitting up benches, Rob and Dave, with there trade mark effort came up with a cunning plan and all was well with the world.
I managed to loose my wreck reel on the first dive, and Howard (one of the OC lot) has lost a fin, we pretty much knew where both are so the plan is to drop down the outside near the prop, see if we can find the reel (we do) and then nip roung the front and drop into the bottom of the lorry deck to see if we can find the fin (we don't). What we did find was the most fantastic swim through, down to the very bottom (side) of the lorrys, turn left, under an artic kinda swing right. Turn further right and swim through what was the side of a trailer, turn sharp right and drop 5~6M keep the side (roof) on you right and swim passed a couple of lorrys, turn leftto the side (floor) turn right and swim passed a big entrance to the decks on the RHS. Some kind sole has removed a hatch on the LHS (floor) this turns out to be the engine room, fantastic, we mooch around in here for a while. There are several lines in there and we follow a couple as far as we can go with the Inspos on (plus bail out stage). Exit the engine room we turn right and swim further into the lorry deck. To be honest we really should have put a line down at this point, what we swam into was a dead end with a couple of very promising corridors leading off it, but we decided it was unwise to follow them so we head off out and up. Dive time was 100 mins or so, average depth was again less than 30M max was 41M.

On the second dive we decide to try the bottom corridors from the bridge, we got about 15 mins in (this time we did lay a line) but ran out of room so had to retrace our steps through a now very silty corridor, kinda fun for some reason I really enjoyed this bit. Poked around the bridge a bit more then took a poke around behind the bridge, found a few interesting machine rooms (no idea what they were but it was interesting). Kinda poked around the lorry deck some more and went up. Dive time around 90 mins, average depth 23M.

Day 3,

We had agreed to show the others where the engine room was, to be honest once you know where it is, it is not hard to find, and a very easy swim to get to it. We then headed off back to the restaurant where there were some more corridors we wanted to take a look at. Mark, god bless him decided to swim up through the kitchen. This was Ok right up to the point where I got stuck, and what did the swine do, he video'ed me, whislt laughing, oh yes, revenge will be mine. Eventually he decided that I had created enough of a silt bomb and came in to un-hook me from the hose pipe I had so lovingly attached myself to.
We used the rest of this dive to get some video footage of the inside of the lorry decks etc.

The second dive was our last, I always make a point of making my last dive a nice gentle pootle, on top of which I wanted some pictures of everybody underwater for the post trip DVD. I hopped in the water with Blanaid, Mark went off with Juz, and we just had a nice 70 mins or so taking pictures of the wreck and the others having some fun with the Torprdo scooters (which seemed pretty good).

All in all this was a fantastic long weekend, the Zenobia is a cracking wreck, particually if you want to go inside. Rob and Dave from Dive-Tek go above and beyond to make sure all is well with your world. I am well renound for my gripes, I had two, one was the lack of kitting up benches (they sorted this) and the other was the ladders. They are absolute pants. There was little they could do, but at the end of each dive, Rob or Dave jumped in the water and help to remove fins and stages. Like I said, above and beyond.

Do this wreck, you'll love it. and you could do a lot worse than arrange it through this pair of reprobates.

As a last note, on the last night we went out for the usual meal and shandy, the restaurant we ate in was seriously superb, Rob will know what it is called. Trust me, eat there, you'll love it.

Andrew

***caveseeker7*** · 30th April 2005, 01:54

Thanks for the trip report, thoroughly enjoyed it.
By the way, feel free too submit a few seconds video clip,
preferably with cussing and laughing audible.

Mark Chase · 30th April 2005, 10:49

Yes we had a great time...

I might need a new shell for the unit soon though

ATB

Mark Chase

30th April 2005, 00:05	#2 (permalink)
AndyP Mutter Grumble Groan Moan Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic rEvo Other Rebreather/s: rEvo Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UK Posts: 93	Here ya go, I have pretty much given up writing trip reports, but to back Rob up I'll have a go, to give a clue this is the same trip that Fin has written about. Day 1, Arrive in cyprus after the usual airport nightmare, Cyprus Airways give an extra 20Kg's for divers, this is OK until you realise that the unit (Inspiration) minus tins, plus a dry suit and necessary bits i.e. fins comes to more than 40 kilos, so I wear the rest, yes I have a jacket on that contains roughly 25 kilos of bits, plus a carry on bag that has got to be another 10~12 still, by using the, one hides round the corner whilst the other checks in technique we get away without any excess baggage charge. Rob and Dave (god bless there cottons) are there with there pick up, plus Mark Powell with the hire car. Rob, by the look on his face has just had a luggage reality check, 8 divers including 3 rebreather boys, have a shed load of luggage, somehow it gets loaded and off we go. Beer and cookies. Day2, Awake to a poo day, this is OK, I live in Engalnd, I'm used to it, the sea looks calm and we meet the, errr, boat. By the time all the kit is on, this is 3 Inspos, 1 KISS and 6 twin sets the boat has sunk a foot in the water, no problem, off we go, it's a smig choppy, but I have been in a lot worse, kit up on a bench that is a tincy bit smaller than my buttocks, which is, to be honest awkward, in one pitch two of the divers land on the floor. It takes a whole 10 mins to get from the harbour to the Zenobia, I am used to punching out 3+ hours in a force 3~4, this is heaven. The Zenobia is supposed to be in 42M of water, so Mark and I plan to use this first dive to take a look and decide where we will go in, and decide what gas to use. Over a few dives we have kinda settled into a routine in the water, we hop in sort out the video camera and set about our plan. This lasts about 10 nano seconds, the first juicy entrance is just too tempting to bear and we swim the length of one of the lorry decks. It is at this point I have to mention, if you are into wreck penetration, this is a must do wreck, simply fantastic. On this dive we entered the deck under an artic from the back, the first thing you notice is what looks like a window in the distance, we amble along looking around at the lorrys and bits and slowly the window gets bigger. Bear in mind this wreck is 175M long, by the time we arrive at the other end (about 20~25 mins) the window has become a door which we duly exit from. Go to the left a bit, up a bit and we go into the restaurant. If you go to the top, go further in past the toilets, there is another cracking swim thru which takes you right through the deck. Fantastic. Pootle about a bit more, and then hit the shot. Our average depth was less than 30M, deco, even after an hour and 15 mins was a whole 17 mins. I now love this wreck. Dive 2 for the day was canned because the skipper reconed it was rough, it wasn't. Day 3, A new boat, bigger, better, but no kitting up benches, Rob and Dave, with there trade mark effort came up with a cunning plan and all was well with the world. I managed to loose my wreck reel on the first dive, and Howard (one of the OC lot) has lost a fin, we pretty much knew where both are so the plan is to drop down the outside near the prop, see if we can find the reel (we do) and then nip roung the front and drop into the bottom of the lorry deck to see if we can find the fin (we don't). What we did find was the most fantastic swim through, down to the very bottom (side) of the lorrys, turn left, under an artic kinda swing right. Turn further right and swim through what was the side of a trailer, turn sharp right and drop 5~6M keep the side (roof) on you right and swim passed a couple of lorrys, turn leftto the side (floor) turn right and swim passed a big entrance to the decks on the RHS. Some kind sole has removed a hatch on the LHS (floor) this turns out to be the engine room, fantastic, we mooch around in here for a while. There are several lines in there and we follow a couple as far as we can go with the Inspos on (plus bail out stage). Exit the engine room we turn right and swim further into the lorry deck. To be honest we really should have put a line down at this point, what we swam into was a dead end with a couple of very promising corridors leading off it, but we decided it was unwise to follow them so we head off out and up. Dive time was 100 mins or so, average depth was again less than 30M max was 41M. On the second dive we decide to try the bottom corridors from the bridge, we got about 15 mins in (this time we did lay a line) but ran out of room so had to retrace our steps through a now very silty corridor, kinda fun for some reason I really enjoyed this bit. Poked around the bridge a bit more then took a poke around behind the bridge, found a few interesting machine rooms (no idea what they were but it was interesting). Kinda poked around the lorry deck some more and went up. Dive time around 90 mins, average depth 23M. Day 3, We had agreed to show the others where the engine room was, to be honest once you know where it is, it is not hard to find, and a very easy swim to get to it. We then headed off back to the restaurant where there were some more corridors we wanted to take a look at. Mark, god bless him decided to swim up through the kitchen. This was Ok right up to the point where I got stuck, and what did the swine do, he video'ed me, whislt laughing, oh yes, revenge will be mine. Eventually he decided that I had created enough of a silt bomb and came in to un-hook me from the hose pipe I had so lovingly attached myself to. We used the rest of this dive to get some video footage of the inside of the lorry decks etc. The second dive was our last, I always make a point of making my last dive a nice gentle pootle, on top of which I wanted some pictures of everybody underwater for the post trip DVD. I hopped in the water with Blanaid, Mark went off with Juz, and we just had a nice 70 mins or so taking pictures of the wreck and the others having some fun with the Torprdo scooters (which seemed pretty good). All in all this was a fantastic long weekend, the Zenobia is a cracking wreck, particually if you want to go inside. Rob and Dave from Dive-Tek go above and beyond to make sure all is well with your world. I am well renound for my gripes, I had two, one was the lack of kitting up benches (they sorted this) and the other was the ladders. They are absolute pants. There was little they could do, but at the end of each dive, Rob or Dave jumped in the water and help to remove fins and stages. Like I said, above and beyond. Do this wreck, you'll love it. and you could do a lot worse than arrange it through this pair of reprobates. As a last note, on the last night we went out for the usual meal and shandy, the restaurant we ate in was seriously superb, Rob will know what it is called. Trust me, eat there, you'll love it. Andrew
(Offline)

30th April 2005, 01:54	#3 (permalink)
*caveseeker7* Who loves ya, baby Current Rebreather/s: Sport Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Prism Topaz Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Too far from Neverland Posts: 5,554	Thanks for the trip report, thoroughly enjoyed it. By the way, feel free too submit a few seconds video clip, preferably with cussing and laughing audible. __________________ Cheers Stefan "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.!"
(Offline)

30th April 2005, 10:49	#4 (permalink)
Mark Chase RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Kent Posts: 2,854	Yes we had a great time... I might need a new shell for the unit soon though ATB Mark Chase __________________ See my "Doing It Chasey" video where I'm locked into a padded room, naked, with two ball bearings and within an Hour, I manage to lose one and break the other!!! Kevin Juergensen 16/11/08 [/quote]
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