Zenobia Cyprus Weekend

We are planning a wreck diving trip to Cyprus in June 2008. The group will be a maximum of ten so that we can take a boat with no other divers. We plan to fly out on the Wednesday 4th June and stay locally in Larnaca. We will make two dives a day for three days on the Zenobia giving us the opportunity to have a good look around! We return to Gatwick on Sunday flying with Fly ThomasCook.

The programme will be finalised in the next couple of weeks but here is a report regarding the ship to whet your appetite! . Price around £500.

 

"The Zenobia is now lying on her side at 42 meters. She has two decks, and two stern doors (1 port, 1 starboard), and was powered by two 7 cylinder, single acting, oil-fired two strokes engines. They delivered 18,760 bhp. Her history and the intrigue over her sinking deserves an article on its own but to give you an idea the rumours ranged from computer error and insurance scams to Middle Eastern security forces.

 

The most popular theory though surrounds her computerized ballasting system, as this reportedly developed a fault while on route to Larnaca. A maintenance team was sent aboard to correct the problem and successfully managed to correct the list to 5°. However, at 5pm on the evening of the 6th June 1980 the Captain mistakenly dismissed them, dispatching them back to land. This was later to prove to be a fatal mistake as the following day at 2am she sank, taking her cargo to her final resting place... The Zenobia was a roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) ferry carrying trucks. More than 100 of these were still shackled in place when she went down. A monster displacing more than 10,000 tonnes, and superficially not unlike the familiar vessels that ply the route between Dover and Calais, the wreck is more than 178m in length, and now lying on its starboard side . Nevertheless, it makes an outstandingly good dive and it is still possible to sit in the cabs of trucks and recognise the remains of some of their cargos. There are Volvos and DAFs, Scanias and Mercs.

 

With a maximum depth of 42m to the sandy sea-bed, Saying that, divers should not swim along the undersides of vehicles, as they can weigh in at more than 40 tonnes and are held in place by chains that are gradually losing their strength. All the windows of the main superstructure have been broken for some years, since two divers were trapped inside. Even though this has added to diver safety, divers are advised not to enter the wreck, because much of the internal partitioning has collapsed."

 

 

The Zenobia was a Swedish roll-on-roll-off ferry fully loaded with 108 trailers and trucks, registered to carry up to 140 passengers.

She sunk on her maiden voyage to Cyprus in 7 June 1980 off Larnaca's fishing harbor.