SS Minnewaska Wreck

The Minnewaska lies just off the Marathi shore in the outer reaches of Souda Bay, one of the most enclosed anchorages in Crete. The Akrotiri peninsula wraps the site from the west around through north to the north-east, killing the prevailing summer Meltemi outright, while the Apokoronas mainland coast closes the arc from the south-east through south at only 3-6.5 km, and the inner bay with the Souda islets lies to the west. The only real window is the bay mouth to the east: between the Akrotiri shore and Cape Drapano the site sees a slot of open Cretan Sea roughly between bearings 85 and 105 degrees, so an easterly blow is the one direction that pushes genuine wind-sea onto the wreck, with the ENE and ESE edges arriving clipped. Everything else reaches the site as short local chop at most, which is why the wreck is diveable nearly year-round with no significant current.