Fairly Good Diving in Limassol but avoid Popeye (Diving in Cyprus)

Member Name: petehall

Product:	Diving in Cyprus
Date:	14/04/02 (499 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Warm waters, plenty of interest

Disadvantages: Watch out for Popeye

The Popeye Diving Centre near Limasol is a disaster waiting to happen. I booked a dive with them one Christmas and was initially impressed when they picked me up from the hotel and took me to this all glass dive centre on a nearby harbour. That impression didn't last long. There were two of us diving and since I was an instructor the proprietor decided that he didn't need to dive. He would take us to Amathus Bay, drop us over the site, and I would escort the other diver who was a relative novice. Next came the gear, I fitted the regulator and turned the bottle on, it read half full. He gave me another bottle - half full, and another. He concluded that the bottles were ok but the needle was sticking on the contents gauge. Reluctantly (and foolishly) I agreed to use it and away we went. Within a few minutes the contents needle was down to 80 bar and after 12 minutes I was down to 50 bar and had to end the dive - my buddy had got the only full bottle in the shop. There are a few "Never Agains" in that story.

To retrieve the situation, a few days later I dived the wrecks of the FARSES II and the MEHABE with Limasol BSAC on the coast road north of Limasol town. These were excellent dives run professionally and all the other divers in the group were local residents (mainly ex-pats). They were well equipped and charged no more than the dive centres.

Both wrecks were fairly close to shore and moderately interesting with plenty to explore. The Farses II was an open deck cargo vessel of 680 tons that sunk in 1981 carrying wiskey in containers. It is intact and lying on it's starboard side. The bronze prop was still there. There were plenty of small fish and large Christmas Tree Fan Worms. Viz about 10m.

The Mehabe is another open deck cargo ship of 1000 tons, half submerged on the harbour wall. It ran aground whilst under tow to the scrap yard. It is upright and intact, complete with bronze prop. Plenty of small fish w
ith viz at about 1 to 4 metres.

I guess there would be more life in the summer, this was Christmas.

Summary: