Finding Zen

Wreck Dives to Remember…

The Zenobia Wreck

The Zenobia ship wreck lies on the sand just off of the coastline of Larnaca in Cyprus.  It has been one of those wrecks that keep cropping up in the many diving publications, forums; and thanks the The Times newspaper, it has been listed as being one of the top ten wreck diving sites in the world.  It is now my objective to give you a dive by dive account of the best of what this amazing shipwreck has to offer.  Since we did 10 dives on her, I will give you a glimpse of my favorites and the most memorable!

The Zenobia is a dive that interests almost all wreck divers, but since it is classified as a deep dive, comes as a bit of a challenge to the inexperienced diver.  The Zenobia, Zen to her friends, has also had its fair share of negative press too.   The stigma which surrounds any wreck that sits in deep water is understandable.  Divers who venture deeper, or for longer than they are trained or experienced to do so risk injury and even death.  Since its sinking in 1980, four divers have died on the wreck.  Earlier this year, in an attempt to prevent any accidents within the limits of port waters that come under its jurisdiction, the Cyprus Port Authority were reported to have  attempted to ban all diving in these areas – which includes the Zen.  The news broke on this in April 2012, thanks to UK diving magazine Diver, who reported also that there was no ban in place after all.  This plus a heap of local publicity surrounding the proposed ban, nothing eventuated from this and local dive centres continued to take divers out to the Zenobia wreck. 

Phew!  Great news!!

This was good news for myself and Winnie as we booked to travel there in early April for a week of Zen diving!!