The Zenobia - Then and Now



THE ZENOBIA – then and now

I first dived the Zenobia in October 1997, doing 6 dives on it, one of which was my 200th. She lies on her port side, but as she’d only been down about 17 years it didn’t take long to get ‘orientated’ and picture how it would have been. In the cafeteria the red tartan ‘wall covering’ was in fact the carpet and the ‘mushrooms’ which were ‘growing’ out of the ‘walls’ were the tables attached to the floor. Drinks dispensers were still clearly visible on the counter top. Outside, lorries which had been chained to the deck hung precariously from the wreck, dangling over the seabed. The engine room had not been opened up, but you could go through the upper lorry deck, into the middle and lower cargo/lorry decks. Peacock worms, soft corals, bream etc had already started colonising the wreck.

When Mike suggested a club trip to do ‘Ten on the Zen’ I thought 10 might be a few too many, having dived it previously, but always ready for a holiday I thought I could have a couple of lazy days on the boat without diving. How wrong I was! There was still so much to see (and even now so much I haven’t seen).

In 2009 to say some things have changed a little is an understatement. The carpet, now faded, is disintegrating and peeling from the ‘walls’ and the engine room is open (not for the faint hearted or wide-girthed amongst us!!), but more of that later. The barracuda, large wrasse and bream are more plentiful and have been joined by a moray eel in one of the propellers, a few nudibranchs, some groupers and some snakes which I thought resembled 30cm lengths of rope (narked again?). The starboard side (the top of the wreck) is now covered with soft corals and the ladder to the crow’s nest is absolutely garlanded with them. But the lorries still hang by their chains! Lorry drivers’ personal items eg torch, have now disappeared from the cabs. In 1997 10 divers constituted ‘overcrowding’ on the wreck. Now there are several boats moored up there at any given time, but it’s not what we would call ‘busy’. Another very welcome change - this year we had the luxury of Nitrox thus extending our dive times.

After previously experiencing a shore-based holiday (in the Red Sea) when all our dives had been guided we weren’t too enthused by the thought of these dives being guided too. But we needn’t have worried – we wouldn’t have seen half the things we did had it not been for our guides Chris and Jane. Their knowledge and wealth of experience on the Zenobia benefited us greatly and gave each of us, from newly-qualified Sports Diver to experienced Advanced Diver, the confidence to further our own diving experiences. Towards the end of the week we did do a couple of unaccompanied dives, but by this time Chris trusted us to not do anything to jeopardise our own or anyone else’s safety.

Most days when we arrived at the dive site, even before we entered the water, we could see the shape of the wreck below us, starboard side uppermost. No chance of missing where you wanted to go!. Going through the lorry decks we passed lorries which had once thundered along the highways of Europe now lying in an eerie silence - and a blue Lada. Lorries outside have been given names such as the Egg Lorry (because of its cargo) and the Bone Lorry, which had been carrying cattle. We had to avoid lines which had been left behind by other divers and squeeze through some fairly tight spaces, the tightest of which was when coming out of the middle car deck. Cylinder on back, weights forward of hips didn’t leave much chance to breathe in etc. I needed a few tugs and shoves and shoves and tugs to get me through the space, and both Aidy and James lost a weight pouch each. (Something to think about when you know you’ll be going through tight spaces on a wreck). At least my weights were on a belt, so I didn’t have that problem. The exit from the engine room was tight, but not that tight!! One of the strangest experiences was in the middle car deck, coming up into an air pocket and being able to take our regs out to talk to each other, albeit in very high pitched voices (similar to in a recompression chamber). Chris did purge about 10 bar into the air pocket as a precaution.

If you’re ever fortunate enough to go into the engine room of the Zenobia, look out for a Bury 601 T-shirt. When the first group went through Chris tried to attach it to a grill in there but that just crumbled. He couldn’t spend much time fiddling around with it because of gas and deco limitations, but when the second group went through he managed to attach it to a pipe.

You’ll need Nitrox to get the most benefit from your ‘Ten on the Zen’ experience.

The Alpha-Divers Dive Centre was very conveniently placed – about 10 seconds from the front door of the hotel – not a luxurious hotel, but basic, comfortable and with a good swimming pool – within easy walking distance of restaurants of at least six nationalities, all serving high quality food at reasonable prices (taking the Euro exchange rate into consideration). Chris even rang up to book tables for us. Each day we were transported from the Dive Centre to the marina. Each evening we returned to wash off our kit, hang it up and leave it to dry ready for the next day. Everything just went so smoothly.

Our holiday was rounded off with a wonderful barbecue at the dive centre. Many thanks to Chris, Lisa, Jane and Alex for all playing their part in making this a most memorable dive trip for both divers and non-divers, old and young.

Kind word from Chris:

… you were by far the best group we have had in six years

Also, to be able to take so many people to the engine room is a huge achievement on your part, if you were not up to standard you wouldn’t have gone, so well done to all who went …. Make sure you guys come back… there is still so much more you haven’t done yet …