Scapa Flow,Scotland,dive-sites

Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland

scapa logo

Dive 2: Karlsruhe
Depth 27M Time 31min Viz 7-10m
On the boat 0830, for 0900. But you can't actually leave until after 900 as the Stromness to Scrabster ferry leaves the port at 0845. Usual morning stuff on the boat. Start to setup your rig, then get the kettle on! You are now facing the big dilemma of the week! The scuttled WWI German fleet consists of seven wrecks. Three 25.000 battleships and four 5000ton destroyers. All lie between 24m and 42m.

Happy divers !

So they are pretty much first dives, and as you are on a six day charter, if you want to do all of the big seven you are a big stuck! So we're on our first dive. Bob arrived into the cabin and asked us what we'd like to do. Although we had lots on info on all the wreck, being a bit dumb and none of us knowing really knowing each other yet, no one was game to shout out a wreck so Bob suggested the Karlsruhe. The Karlsruhe is a 5000ton destroyer, and is the shallowest of the seven wrecks at a maximum of 24m's and is a good shakedown dive to start the week. Recorded in my divelog. "Excellent dive except for the end!" The dive was excellent. 10m viz Some fish life including wrasse and ling. About 25 minutes bottom time and pulled 27m max depth (so much for the 24m max quoted!). and back to the shot. I knew I was slightly under-weighted at the start of the dive and had to dump air from BCD and suit to get below the surface on my ascent. I was on 110bar as we headed back to the shot, so knew my cylinder should be that much lighter. But as we got back to the shot we found about a dozen divers circling the shot. Another dive boat had arrived at the site after us and descended whilst we were down. As our crowd arrived at the shot to go home, the others were descending down the shot. One of their crew had managed to get the buoy caught around his tank and had somehow managed to descend to the bottom with the buoy attached! In the struggle he had managed to get the line wrapped around himself and all his crew and half of ours pitched in to untangle him. I arrived at the tail end of this and pitched in to help to. Unfortunately as I untangled the last of the line around his valve I lost buoyancy and headed up from 16m to about 10m. As I struggled to dump like hell I was completely blinded by the mass of bubbles coming from the twelve divers below. There was so many bubbles I felt I was being pushed up from the bottom. H, my buddy grabbed onto my leg as I struggled to right myself. And after struggling I managed a one-minute stop about 6m. Not what I had planned (3min at 5m) before hitting the surface. Not a good start to the week.

Dive 3: F2 and Y2C Barge
Max Depth 15.5m Time 41min Viz 12M+

The F2 is an old British destroyer. Beside the wreck is an old barge that sank many years later. A rope tied between the two wrecks helps with navigation between the two. Bob gave us a bit of Scapa triva in that the rope is 19.7M long The F2 is okay. When I say okay, I mean that after diving one of the big German wrecks this appears small and insignificant. This was to be a feature of our weeks diving as the second dives were so outdone by our first dives on the big wrecks. Its not that the wrecks were poor. If we dived the F2 off Cornwall or Dorset we'd be singing its praises, but after a 5000 ton WWI destroyer it was a bit of a comedown, We were getting very fussy! After Steve leading us on a so-called swim thru on the F2 that lead into a pile of old cables, our little dive club formed a quorum, held an underwater committee meeting and sacked Steve as dive leader. H took up the lead. So off we set off for the barge. Passing around the bow of the F2 we rounded the hull to head up to the rope. There was actually a bit of a "current bun" as H puts it, and you needed to kick down to fin up the wreck. We hit the rope and over the 20m's to the barge. H took us over the top of the barge (10m) and into the barge. We dropped into the wreck and found a passage way with a bench and vice! This leads to a very short 2m passageway which led into a small L shaped room about 8m x 8m. Lots of portholes allowed light into the room. Must say I was a little spooked at the penetration and kept at the only doorway to ensure our escape! Bimbled around the barge for the rest of the dive. Feed a few wrasse with an urchin. Steve signalled he was a bit cold as his left sleeve was letting in water. The water temp was a constant 12C thru the week. We fired off the DSMB from the barge and went home.

Dive 4: Dresden
Max Depth 31.4m Time 31min Viz 10M+

After the excitement of the first days diving, everyone's spirits were up, the horrible journey had been forgotten and everyone was getting into the swing of things on the boat. I was mega-keen and was first down the shot. Spooky. With no other boats on site and all your crew behind you, it's an eerie felling as the wreck starts to appear out of the greyness as you descend towards it. The shot puts us on the bow. A few swim thru's through the superstructure. As we swam over the wreck, the immense size if the wreck dwarfs you with the sheets of metal making it difficult to work out were you are on the wreck.

SMS Dresden 5,531 ton German light cruiser

All to soon our planned 20 minutes bottom time was running out and it was time to rise up the top of the wreck to about 20m. Rather than return to the shot we bagged off and home. First in, generally means first out, so my job to get the kettle on back on the boat. Made note to make sure I kit up last through the rest of the week.

Dive 5: Myra Wreck & Bottle drift dive
Max Depth 15.9m Time 44min Viz 10M+

This was to be the only drift dive of the trip. Started off quite eventful. My three were last in (not making the tea again!). We were all within about 4-5m of the shot when we signalled to descend. A few m's below, Steve reached the shot line, but as I swam over, glancing behind, H was still on the surface and drifting off. Waited 20 seconds but no sign of her attempting to descend. Finned over to and surfaced behind her to see what the problem was - inflate hose problem, dodgy connection and had popped off when she strided in. The Boat was steaming over so we re-boarded and sorted it out. As the ladder was still down, Bob reminded us to clear the ladder with our strides in - unfortunately, as I gave myself an extra push from my left leg - the wet fin slipped from underneath me and I landed face-first into the water. The face-flop smacked my mask but it survived. When we descended the shot we landed on the Myra. An old dive boat sitting in 16m that sank whilst doing this drift dive! There must be a right story about that. The current was quite strong and we needed to hug the small wreck to keep out of the current. Circled the wreck once, viewing the 'head'. The rest of the wreck has been pretty much striped of everything. Deployed the DSMB for surface cover and off we went on the 'bottle dive'. With H armed with my goodie bag we fanned out on our hunt for the many bottles that litter the 15m sandy bottom. This proved quite a laugh as we picked up various shapes and colours of the remnants of past sailors' drinking sessions! After about 10 minutes H's bag was starting to overflow, not being daft she passed the bag over to Steve who was then lumbered for the rest of the dive. After about 40 minutes the bag and all our pockets were filled with our assortment of goodies Steve was getting cold so we pulled the dive. Back on the boat everyone was going through their goodies scraping off barnacles and sludge and wondering how old the bottles were. To be honest I think most of them were thrown in the year before and I did wonder as we chugged back to Stromness tossing the bottles back into the flow that we were recycling the dive for the next years adventurers. A few bottles were of interest and Steve keep one with "Relish" italic'ed over it - probably 1940's vintage - A nice trophy for his 100th dive.

The Scapa story continues...