on Tour

**Simon TW** · 22nd September 2005, 11:54

I hope that this is the right place to post.

It was a very hot evening in Hurghada when I was discussing diving with some friends. The friends were a mixed European bunch and we were talking about the diving in our own countries. Allthough I have dived Scapa twice and had a splash or two in loch long I haven't done any other diving in Britain (Lakes and quarries excluded) and so I thought that I had been missing out on some good diving.

The idea was to spend a month or two travelling and diving, it would be impossible to cover all of the country in a couple of months and the weather would eventually prevent me from doing it in one go so I thought that the North would be a good starting point.

After a couple of discussions and a little (very little) thought I came up with a plan.

Firstly, I needed a new drysuit and some kit for the cold water. I also needed some cylinders for the YBOD (as I'd left mine in Egypt) and a couple of cylinders to decant from. Some phonecalls, visits and several posts on an internet dive forum (Yorkshire Divers) sourced most of the required kit. For the cylinders to decant from, I already had two air cylinders but not O2 clean so I rang Andy Heyhurst (Dales Divers) and as it would happen he was running a course that included O2 cleaning and I booked myself on it and not only did I learn about O2 cleaning I learned all about how regulators work and was happy as a pig in muck stripping Apeks and Poseidon regs down.

Sunday 21st August was the first day of diving, I had some new kit and as I'm not that happy in a drysuit anyway I have to test and ensure that everything was working and all as it should be.

I had posted on the internet forum for Buddies and I had received a few responses, I did expect more and was a little disappointed but I only really needed one.

I met John and Dave in the queue at Caperwray quarry and dive centre and we were able to park together. I have never seen Capernwray so busy. We kitted up and discussed kit, the dive and the diving that we had been doing.

I could bore you to death with a report on dive and the route taken together with what we saw, but I will spare you. It's a quarry, that should be sufficient.

In all it was a very pleasant day. I got two dives in, one hour fourty mins total dive time on the YBOD for the day and I also caught up with some old buddies. All of the new kit worked well and I'm pleased to say the drysuit did was it was supposed too.

After the pleasant day at Capernwray I was preparing to head north. St Abb's was to be the next destination.

I’m a little new to UK sea diving (just a couple of times at Scapa and Loch long) and I’ve never dived off a boat in the UK so it was to be new experiences for me. I had had some discussions with other divers who booked themselves on the same boat and I was to meet up with them at St Abb’s.

All nearly went to plan, we met at the Caravan in a field on the Friday evening and had a little drink and re-aquatinted ourselves before retiring, however one of my buddies Dave, had had a fall and was badly grazed and bruised. (He said he did it kiteing but that’s what I say when I’m pissed) so he was unsure of his dive fitness but would know better in the morning.

Morning arrived and we got up and ready, Dave watched me pack the old scrubber. And helped with all the kit to the harbour. He had decided not to dive but would look after the dogs (Sam and Nova).

I was to dive in a three with Jules and Josie. We entered the water gave the OK and then down… hang on! the down bit wasn’t working too good, I’d added extra weight but obviously not enough. I thought I can fin down so long as I can hold a stop it won’t be a problem and at 5 metre I stopped, I then started to rise so thought it best to call the dive as Jules and Josie were well down.

Dive 2 was with more lead, 3 kilo to be precise and still a little light. So that was it, UK cherry broken. The evening was pleasant, curry, wine and a film.

On the Sunday I was diving with Colin and Helen as a three and we planned to do two dives but we were having fun and we managed to get on the 5 O’clock boat and did three dives. Helen was to dive on the Monday and I hadn’t planned to be diving but there was space on the boat so I agreed to dive, I didn’t need much persuading.

Mondays dives were as good as the others, on the first dive though we were separated and as we hadn’t agreed separation procedures prior to diving I looked for 1 minute then surfaced. She had done the same and was being picked up as I surfaced. We were offered a chance to go back down and thought we’d give it a go but my reel was tangled so that was that. The second dive was nice and a good day was had by all.

Next I was to head for Lossiemouth in the hope of diving the Moray Firth later in the week.

The drive from St Abbs to Lossiemouth took longer than expected. I had managed to get a Caravan site at a place called Findochty but soon found out that it was pronounced Fin-ecty. I heard several reasons why and they all differed apart from it was the fault of the English.

When I arrived at Findochty I was surprised to find such a nice place, and it looked as if you could just walk right in and dive. In fact you could. The whole region of the Moray Firth is ripe for diving but there just aren’t enough Divers to make a diving operation worthwhile. There is one boat from Lossiemouth called “Top Cat” and he was full and it appears that he is full quite a lot of the time. The whole coast is littered with little villages all with harbours suitable for dive boats.

I had been contacted by a guy called Col, he had read of my plans to dive Scotland and offered to dive with me at the Moray Firth. Col is a member of a Burghead BSAC ( British Sub Aqua Club) he offered to sort out some diving from the Club RHIB. He also asked around local divers and on the Saturday we were four. The plan was to dive the Verona, At 43 metres it was to be my first UK wreak (not counting blockships at Scapa or sunken to order boats in inland quarries) the plan was to have a bottom time of 28mins and total dive one hour. This was Col’s plan as he was on mix, I knew that my deco would be much shorter on the YBOD but I was happy with his plan as time in the water all counts towards the hours on the unit.

I have been travelling with a 12ltr cylinder of O2 and a 15 of air and decanting to the inspiration 3 litre cylinders, although I had plenty of gas I would have to start topping after each dive so I thought that as I was in the area a trip to Aberdeen to get some O2 boosted would be in order. The problem with this is that Aberdeen; British capital of Comercial diving only had one place that could boost O2 (although there were two places that I could buy a mini sub from). Aberdeen Watersports had a Haskell but they didn’t have any O2. What! Yep no O2 but they offered to boost the gas from the 12 litre cylinder to the 3 litre from the YBOD. That would have to do.

On arriving at Aberdeen Watersports they explained that they had just sent a trip off for mix diving at Scapa therefore they used all the O2 and were awaiting a delivery. On checking the J’s (big 50 litre cylinders) there was a little left in. it took a long time but they did manage to get the dregs out of the J’s and fill my 3 and 12 litre cylinders to 200 bar.

I met Col on the Saturday morning as arranged and he had told me about the wreak of the Verona being in “Diver” Magazine. Having seen the picture I was to get an idea of what I was diving on even if I couldn’t see it underwater. The two other guy’s were waiting at the Harbour and we launched the boat and blasted across a flat calm sea. Col and I dived second and we had been told that the visibility was not so good but on dropping down the shot line I could see about 3 metres, I’m used to diving wreaks where you can see the whole boat in one, this was a new experience seeing a little at a time. My torch didn’t at want to work so I had my back up on. This was going to be fun 3 metre viz and a backup torch so I had another play and the thing sprung to life. HID rules! Well it does when the viz is 3 metres.

The wreak was quite interesting and as it’s a war grave it’s not been picked clean a lot of interesting stuff to see, especially the sanitryware. I couldn’t believe it when Col signalled 5 minutes before we ascend. 28 minutes bottom time was over just to quickly and we started the assent and began the series of stops.

On the Sunday we again met at Burghead but it was to be just Col and me with Charlie as a cox. The dive was to be the San Turbica. I would like to tell you more about it but I don’t know anything. I have a book that took some time to find, it is called Dive Scotland vol III and it’s crap. This wreak isn’t even in it. However it is a big ship broken in two and lies in 28 to 38 metres. On this dive it was to be the torch of buddy Col that was to refuse to work but his backup was more than up to the job. Again Col had planned the dive so I just dived his plan and hung around whilst he did the deco stops.

The Moray Firth is a really lovely place to visit I was very reluctant to leave not just because of the offer of a night dive on Tuesday but because the diving is good and the countryside is beautiful, however the people make you feel so welcome.
I have Col to thank for ensuring that I got to dive here, without him it would not have been possible without waiting around for a week.

I left the Moray Firth on Monday and made my way up to the north coast and took the ferry to the Orkneys. It was dark when I arrived at Stromness Caravan park but I knew that it was right on the Flow. In the morning I couldn’t believe it,. The Caravan is two metres from the water. I couldn’t be nearer if I was on a liveaboard. I called in to see Sarah and Ben (Scapa Scuba, I did my drysuit course with them and adventure diver they also made my silly horned hood) then to hopefully catch Hazel the skipper of Stormdrift, when her boat comes in.

Scapa Flow is the water surrounded by the islands of Orkney. a group of islands north of Scotland, the sea separating the islands had ships sunk (on purpose) between them to create a enclosed area of sea. This is called Scapa Flow and was at one time a very important part of British Naval strategy. In the first world war the British thought that they had all shipping coming in and out of the flow monitored, one German U-boat (UB-116) tried to enter and was detected and sunk however years later in 1939 on one particularly high tide another U-boat (U-47) did get into the flow over the top of the block ships. The result of this was that HMS Royal Oak was sunk with a torpedo and 833 men died. The Royal Oak is still there but it is a protected war grave and it’s illegal to dive within 100 metres of it.

At the end of the first world war Germany signed an Armistice, which was a cease fire while terms of surrender were agreed. The Kaiser’s Imperial High Seas Fleet were in port where they had remained, penned in for most of the war. A condition of the Armistice was that 74 ships were to be disarmed and taken to a neutral port if at all possible. However, the High Seas Fleet were taken by escort to Scapa Flow.

The crews on the fleet were disheartened and revolution had broken out in Germany and a new communist government had taken power. The Fleet were kept in the Flow for months and the timeframe by which the Armistice was agreed was being continually extended. News was withheld from the German crews and the leader a Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided that as the Armistice was to end the state of War was to be resumed. He did not want the ships to fall into enemy hands therefore he gave the command to scuttle the fleet. This was at mid day on the 21st June 1919.

The sea-cocks had been opened and the mechanisms for closing them were disconnected and damaged, the ships slowly and quietly began to take on water and sink.

When the British who were guarding them realised what was going they panicked and a few fights broke out resulting in 8 German deaths, the men who died here were the last of the first world war. The British tried to board boats and tow boats to shallower water to beach them. In the end 47 ships sank.

The scuttling of the fleet at Scapa was the greatest loss of ships ever in one go and also the most ships sank by one man. Reuter took full responsibility for the sinking and was decorated for it.

What he also unwittingly did was make Scapa Flow one of the worlds best dive sites. Most of the scuttled fleet have been salvaged, ironically a lot of the armour plate was sold to Krupps and used to build ships like the Bismark and Terpitz for Hitlers Navy.

Seven ships of the scuttled fleet remain in in the waters of Scapa. The three Battleships are all inverted due to the weight of their guns, when they took on water they became top heavy and rolled over. When these ships were built they were some of the biggest ships in the world at over 25,000 tons each, the Konig which lies in 40m metres, Kronprinz Wilhelm in 34 metres and Markgraft at 42metres. All of the ships have been blasted in places to give salvage access to the non ferrous metals, this also means that divers can get a good look inside. Because of the sheer size of these vessels, when diving, on your decent it gives the impression that your on the seabed not on the underneath of a battleship.

The other ships that remain are four light cruisers the Brummer (36 metre), Coln (35 metre), Dresden (34 metre) and karlsruhe (24 metre) these all lie on their sides.

There is a further ship, V83 this was a torpedo boat (destroyer) it was scuttled and then raised by the salvage company who used it to help re-float the Hindenburg, when this was achived she was dumped in her present position. V83 is broken in two and well broken up, she lies between 20 metres to as shallow as 5 metres.

Scapa Flow boasts 92 wreak sites and 54 further unidentified or unknown wreak sites it is a sheltered area covering 120 square miles. In the morning in the main harbours there are many boats full of divers waiting to explore.

When I was settled I thought that I would be able to get diving at one of the most famous dive sites in the world quite easily. How wrong was I?

All of the boats leave Stromness Harbour in the morning and don’t return until evening. This was going to be awkward as I had the dogs and I wasn’t prepared to leave then all day on there own.

The weather was changing constantly. Hot sun then cloud and wind. The first two days when the sun shone it was hot, not hot like in Egypt or even hot like in England but hot never the less. When the sun was out I witnessed a totally different type of person, the locals wore summer clothes and the guys took off their shirts. What this revealed was that the flesh of the local population was blue, yes blue, a very pale blue. If it was a paint colour it would be called bluebell white. I’m used to seeing Russians on holiday in Egypt and they are very white but not this blue white. I was told that after a couple of weeks in the sun that they go white and loose the blue.

I asked around the locals for a dog sitter and after three days a suitable responsible adult was found. He was recommended by several of the locals as being very reliable. The guy’s name was James and he would be a whole story on his own but as promised he was waiting when I arrived.

I had telephoned several dive boat skippers that were out but they were either full or were chartered and they wouldn’t let me on, even the boat with just two guy’s from Germany wouldn’t let me join them. I was quite happy to dive solo all I required was a means to get to the wreaks. Hazel was not out but she was booked from Sunday with a group from Brunel University BSAC who wouldn’t mind if I joined them, but this was Thursday and I’d been here three day’s already with no diving.

A little chat with Hazel and I was diving off her boat “Stormdrift” on the Friday and the Saturday. This was to be the best diving of the trip so far. I was not just diving solo but I had the whole boat to myself. This meant that I could dive what wreaks I wanted for as long as I wanted.

I had dived solo before in the Red Sea but that was nice clear blue water and not that deep. This was to be low viz and deco on my YBOD and a drysuit, but when I thought about it, I had always dived solo. From very early on I carried redundancy in the form of my pony, most of my diving has been leading others where your always aware where they are and how much air they have and their limitations. I have never relied on anyone else underwater outside of where I have been the student. This was diving for me, it was my holiday and my boat and it was to be diving without concern for anyone other than myself.

Dive 1 in Scapa Flow was to be the Dresden. I had arranged to leave Sam and Nova with James (the local dog sitter) for the days that I was to dive. I dropped then off and then met Hazel, the captain of “Stormdrift”. Hazel was Making the boat ready as I arrived, I passed my kit down to her which was not a small task as I seem to carry loads of it.

We cast off and set sail for the Dresden. The Dresden was the name-ship for the Dresden II class and rests on her port side in water ranging from 25 to 45m. Although the hull is well preserved the weather deck of the Dresden is collapsing to port. This collapsing is exposing the underside and burying the forward armaments in the mud of the area.

Built in Kiel and launched on 25th April 1917 she was scuttled at 11.30 hrs on 21 June 1919. Displacing 5600 tons and 156 metres long she was the heaviest of the light cruisers of the fleet she carried two and a half inch thick armour plating with 8 5.9 inch guns.

As I dropped down the shot line I went nice and slowly as I had read how the huge hulls come into vision all of a sudden as you fall within the visibility field. This is different to the Red Sea Wreaks where you can make out the ship as soon as you begin your decent and true to form the huge hull appeared as if from nowhere. I won’t go into detail about the dive as there are many accounts on the state of fleet and what there is to see. One of the highlights of the dive was that I was all alone and by that I don’t just mean diving without a buddy I was the only diver on the wreak at that time and that made it that little bit special.

Dive 2 was the Karlsruhe. This is in the worst condition of all of the Cruisers because it is situated on the west side of Cava where there is stronger currents, it is also the shallowest of the wreaks in only 25metres. The damage is worse towards the stern. The Karlsruhe was built at Wilhemshaven and launched on 31st January 1916, she was scuttled at 1550 on 21st June 1919. !51 metres long and armed with eight 5.9 inch guns she carried two and a half inch thich armour plate and was capable of 27-28 knots at a sprint.

Like the Dresden I had this wreak all to my self and although it was well broken up it was enjoyable.

Day 2 dive one (Saturday), this is the day that the diving groups change around so dive boats don’t usually go out. We were one of two boats in the whole flow. The first dive was to be the Markgraft, this is a Konig class battleship and she lies on her starboard side superstructure in 45metres of water and is the deepest of the scuttled fleet. A great deal of the bow of the ship is missing and salvage has also damaged the stern quite badly. Built in Bremen and launched on the 4th June 1913 she was scuttled at 16.45 on the 21st June 1919.

This was a long deep dive and I was at or around 45 metres for 33 minutes then I sent up a DSMB and did the deco. In all the dive was 55 minutes

Dive two was the debris field of the Seydlitz this is midway between Rysa Little and Cava. The Seydlitz was salvaged and when the salvagers had her in tow she was dragged along the bottom of the seabed thus leaving a trail of the contents of the upper decks.

A nice second dive at 22 metres, I decided to drift off the debris and see what the bottom of Scapa Flow had to show. First thing that I noticed was how much coal that there is just on the sea bed, then I found a broken mug. I next came across a buried cable with an eye above the seabed then there was a second eye and I decided to see where the cables would take me. The visibility was about 12 metres and I could see a ridge appear on the seabed in front of me it was about a metre high and ran as far as I could see to either side. As I aproached the ridge I realised that it was a submarine net that was lying along the sea bottom it had become apart of the bottom and now forms a mini reef .I bagged off and ascended shortly afterwards. Total dive time 58 minuets.

Day three dive one. We were to dive the Kronprinz Willhelm however the shot line had gone and as I was now on the boat with Brunel University BSAC I was diving there choice. This was to be their shakedown dive and they formed a group of experienced and novice divers. They couldn’t dive the boat without a shotline so it was back to the Karlsruhe for me. As I was kitting up I had put my in my mouth whilst I put my knife on, then I was pre breathing the loop and when that was done there was no sign of the Viper so my Viper was missing. Was I pissed off or what. I know that it is a couple of years old but it hasn’t done that many dives and I like to use it as a bottom timer come backup as the numbers are big and I’m getting old and my eyesight doesn’t seem too great at anything above 30 metres. I looked around the boat but no luck.

The dive was fine however as I had dived it before I took off on the sea bed around looking at the debris and remembering dives with my now lost friend Viper.

The second dive was the F2 and YC21, The F2 was a Second world war German escort vessel similar to a Destroyer. She was built in Kiel in 1936 and displaced 790 tons when launched, She was lengthened and lightened and her armourment changed in 1939. She sank at her mooring in !946 and now lies in 18 20 metres.

After diving the F2 you follow the bow and you come across a propeller fixed up right on the sea bed then 30 metres from the F2 is the wooden barge YC21. This was a salvage barge and was salvaging the F2 when she sank, she still has a 20 millimetre anti –aircraft gun in her hold that she had salvaged from the F2. As I approached the YC21 I was greeted by a very playful seal who was happy to play with me. I think he was curious towards the diver without the bubbles. He went and I started my assent and he returned as was doing the deco and kept swimming by.

Day Four was to be the Brummer. Built at Stettin and launched on the 11 December 1915 she was a “Kleiner Kreuzer” (light cruiser) designed for fast mine laying. The name “Brummer” translates to “Bluebottle” (house fly) and even with a full cargo of 360 mines she could outrun many of the British Fleet.

The Brummer lies in 36 metres on her Starboard side and although she has been blasted for salvage she is still very much in tact.

The second dive was the V83. This was a torpedo-boat (Destroyer) she was built in Hamburg in 1916 and although she was scuttled she was raised by salvagers and used to salvage other vessels. When the Hindenberg was salvaged she was sunk in her present posision of the East side of Rysa Little. The V83 is broken in two and lies in 8 metres and 20 metres. After diving this wreak I followed the seabed down the slope going deeper and I came across the remains of several old mines and depth charges. However they could have possibly been floats and weights for Submarine nets but would prefer to think of them as the former.

Day 5 was to be my last day The weather was to be getting worse we were to start at 8.30 instead of nine. I was nearly killed by the snooze and saved by the bob hat. When the alarm went off I just kept pressing snooze and then I realised that it was an earlier start and that I hadn’t yet packed the scrubber. I rushed when I was packing it but it seemed ok. I got everything into the car and was ready to set off when I remembered that my bob hat was still in the caravan. It was to be cold and wet but I could do without it but it was a present from a good friend, Anders who has always wanted to dive Scapa so I had been taking it with me every day so that I can tell him where the hat had been. I reluctantly returned for it, silly I know as I risked missing the boat but I did. When I went to pick up the hat there was an “O” ring and collar next to it that should have been inside the scrubber. Without the “O” ring and collar carbon dioxide would easily pass the scrubber and I would pass out and drown. So The snooze made me rush and make mistakes and the hat made me notice that the scrubber was not assembled correctly.

The ropes where being untied as I arrived. On the boat I sat in the saloon with Sam, the expedition leader from Brunel BSAC. I asked him what they had planned for today, he was looking in the books and I suggested the Kronprinz Wilhelm and he knew that I wanted to dive it and agreed. The kronprinz Wilhelm was built in Kiel and launched in November 1914. She was a Konig class battleship and a sister ship of the Konig and the Markgraft. They were some of the largest Dreadnaughts that the world had ever seen.

Today she lies in 35 metres of water and rests on her starboard main deck with much of the superstructure embedded in the silty bottom. She is in the best condition of all three Battleships. When I was back on “Stormdrift “ hazel was concerned that I had quite a bit of blood in my mask. I hadn’t had a fast assent and I had hung around 8 more minutes than I needed on deco just to put the hours up so I wasn’t unduly worried but there was quite a bit of it.

The next dive was to be my last and I had two ships remaining on my wish list. The Coln and the Konig. The Coln is considered by many to be the best dive in Scapa Flow and the Konig is another Battleship that was so top heavy that it is virtually upside down. I again chatted with Sam and as the Coln is in shallower water it was chosen.

The Coln is another Light Cruiser and was built in Hamburg and launched on the 5 October 1916. She was a very fast ship capable of 29 knots she lies in 35 metres of water and rests on her starboard side at 90 degrees, she has split creating some amazing swim through’s. I followed a group of three who all wanted to fin like crazy, I was soon in a silt out and couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I waited a couple of minutes to see if it would clear, it didn’t and I had to feel my way out. I did get to the stern before them and entered first but they didn’t follow anyway so I had a good look around. It was a little tight getting out at the stern but then again I’m not small.

I watched everyone else bag off. They were all diving open circuit and by now would have wound up their computers so their bottom times would be getting much shorter and their deco times much longer. I turned around to fin once more over the wreak for the last time in Scapa. I again had it all to myself and that special feeling returned. I bagged off and did the stops adding a further 7 minutes, (it all goes towards the hours) I could taste the blood so knew the nose was bleeding again. When I surfaced I again had blood in my mask. I was the first back on the boat and I looked around the sparse landscape of Scapa knowing that I will return.

Hazel and her boat “Stormdrift” are a pleasure to dive with. There is always a kettle on and biscuits on a plate. After each dive your presented with fruit which is very pleasant after having rubber in your mouth for over an hour. “Stormdrift” has compressors and O2 on board so fills, Nitrox fills and decanting into your re-breather are no trouble. Hazel is also a Tri-mix trained diver with lots of experience, not a fisherman who has converted his boat. She is a mind of useful information and one of those people who you could talk to for hours, it was really nice to meet her.

On Thursday I departed Scapa Flow and the Orkneys, I drove down the East Coast and made my way back to St Abbs where I had been offered a space on a Huddersfield BSAC trip. They had had a cancellation so I obliged.

The diving on the Saturday was really low visibility as the tides were over 6 metres high and the water like a washing machine. I enjoyed them just the same. On the Sunday it was still high tides but the weather had changed as the wind had dropped. The diving was much better as you could see more than a metre.

I’m now back in Manchester the trip has now ended and the kit is washed off and packed ready for the next outing. All I need is a plan!

22nd September 2005, 11:54	#1 (permalink)
Simon TW Martini Diver Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Inspiration Vision Evolution Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: May 2005 Location: Hurghada (Egypt) and Lancaster (England) Posts: 157	on Tour I hope that this is the right place to post. It was a very hot evening in Hurghada when I was discussing diving with some friends. The friends were a mixed European bunch and we were talking about the diving in our own countries. Allthough I have dived Scapa twice and had a splash or two in loch long I haven't done any other diving in Britain (Lakes and quarries excluded) and so I thought that I had been missing out on some good diving. The idea was to spend a month or two travelling and diving, it would be impossible to cover all of the country in a couple of months and the weather would eventually prevent me from doing it in one go so I thought that the North would be a good starting point. After a couple of discussions and a little (very little) thought I came up with a plan. Firstly, I needed a new drysuit and some kit for the cold water. I also needed some cylinders for the YBOD (as I'd left mine in Egypt) and a couple of cylinders to decant from. Some phonecalls, visits and several posts on an internet dive forum (Yorkshire Divers) sourced most of the required kit. For the cylinders to decant from, I already had two air cylinders but not O2 clean so I rang Andy Heyhurst (Dales Divers) and as it would happen he was running a course that included O2 cleaning and I booked myself on it and not only did I learn about O2 cleaning I learned all about how regulators work and was happy as a pig in muck stripping Apeks and Poseidon regs down. Sunday 21st August was the first day of diving, I had some new kit and as I'm not that happy in a drysuit anyway I have to test and ensure that everything was working and all as it should be. I had posted on the internet forum for Buddies and I had received a few responses, I did expect more and was a little disappointed but I only really needed one. I met John and Dave in the queue at Caperwray quarry and dive centre and we were able to park together. I have never seen Capernwray so busy. We kitted up and discussed kit, the dive and the diving that we had been doing. I could bore you to death with a report on dive and the route taken together with what we saw, but I will spare you. It's a quarry, that should be sufficient. In all it was a very pleasant day. I got two dives in, one hour fourty mins total dive time on the YBOD for the day and I also caught up with some old buddies. All of the new kit worked well and I'm pleased to say the drysuit did was it was supposed too. After the pleasant day at Capernwray I was preparing to head north. St Abb's was to be the next destination. I’m a little new to UK sea diving (just a couple of times at Scapa and Loch long) and I’ve never dived off a boat in the UK so it was to be new experiences for me. I had had some discussions with other divers who booked themselves on the same boat and I was to meet up with them at St Abb’s. All nearly went to plan, we met at the Caravan in a field on the Friday evening and had a little drink and re-aquatinted ourselves before retiring, however one of my buddies Dave, had had a fall and was badly grazed and bruised. (He said he did it kiteing but that’s what I say when I’m pissed) so he was unsure of his dive fitness but would know better in the morning. Morning arrived and we got up and ready, Dave watched me pack the old scrubber. And helped with all the kit to the harbour. He had decided not to dive but would look after the dogs (Sam and Nova). I was to dive in a three with Jules and Josie. We entered the water gave the OK and then down… hang on! the down bit wasn’t working too good, I’d added extra weight but obviously not enough. I thought I can fin down so long as I can hold a stop it won’t be a problem and at 5 metre I stopped, I then started to rise so thought it best to call the dive as Jules and Josie were well down. Dive 2 was with more lead, 3 kilo to be precise and still a little light. So that was it, UK cherry broken. The evening was pleasant, curry, wine and a film. On the Sunday I was diving with Colin and Helen as a three and we planned to do two dives but we were having fun and we managed to get on the 5 O’clock boat and did three dives. Helen was to dive on the Monday and I hadn’t planned to be diving but there was space on the boat so I agreed to dive, I didn’t need much persuading. Mondays dives were as good as the others, on the first dive though we were separated and as we hadn’t agreed separation procedures prior to diving I looked for 1 minute then surfaced. She had done the same and was being picked up as I surfaced. We were offered a chance to go back down and thought we’d give it a go but my reel was tangled so that was that. The second dive was nice and a good day was had by all. Next I was to head for Lossiemouth in the hope of diving the Moray Firth later in the week. The drive from St Abbs to Lossiemouth took longer than expected. I had managed to get a Caravan site at a place called Findochty but soon found out that it was pronounced Fin-ecty. I heard several reasons why and they all differed apart from it was the fault of the English. When I arrived at Findochty I was surprised to find such a nice place, and it looked as if you could just walk right in and dive. In fact you could. The whole region of the Moray Firth is ripe for diving but there just aren’t enough Divers to make a diving operation worthwhile. There is one boat from Lossiemouth called “Top Cat” and he was full and it appears that he is full quite a lot of the time. The whole coast is littered with little villages all with harbours suitable for dive boats. I had been contacted by a guy called Col, he had read of my plans to dive Scotland and offered to dive with me at the Moray Firth. Col is a member of a Burghead BSAC ( British Sub Aqua Club) he offered to sort out some diving from the Club RHIB. He also asked around local divers and on the Saturday we were four. The plan was to dive the Verona, At 43 metres it was to be my first UK wreak (not counting blockships at Scapa or sunken to order boats in inland quarries) the plan was to have a bottom time of 28mins and total dive one hour. This was Col’s plan as he was on mix, I knew that my deco would be much shorter on the YBOD but I was happy with his plan as time in the water all counts towards the hours on the unit. I have been travelling with a 12ltr cylinder of O2 and a 15 of air and decanting to the inspiration 3 litre cylinders, although I had plenty of gas I would have to start topping after each dive so I thought that as I was in the area a trip to Aberdeen to get some O2 boosted would be in order. The problem with this is that Aberdeen; British capital of Comercial diving only had one place that could boost O2 (although there were two places that I could buy a mini sub from). Aberdeen Watersports had a Haskell but they didn’t have any O2. What! Yep no O2 but they offered to boost the gas from the 12 litre cylinder to the 3 litre from the YBOD. That would have to do. On arriving at Aberdeen Watersports they explained that they had just sent a trip off for mix diving at Scapa therefore they used all the O2 and were awaiting a delivery. On checking the J’s (big 50 litre cylinders) there was a little left in. it took a long time but they did manage to get the dregs out of the J’s and fill my 3 and 12 litre cylinders to 200 bar. I met Col on the Saturday morning as arranged and he had told me about the wreak of the Verona being in “Diver” Magazine. Having seen the picture I was to get an idea of what I was diving on even if I couldn’t see it underwater. The two other guy’s were waiting at the Harbour and we launched the boat and blasted across a flat calm sea. Col and I dived second and we had been told that the visibility was not so good but on dropping down the shot line I could see about 3 metres, I’m used to diving wreaks where you can see the whole boat in one, this was a new experience seeing a little at a time. My torch didn’t at want to work so I had my back up on. This was going to be fun 3 metre viz and a backup torch so I had another play and the thing sprung to life. HID rules! Well it does when the viz is 3 metres. The wreak was quite interesting and as it’s a war grave it’s not been picked clean a lot of interesting stuff to see, especially the sanitryware. I couldn’t believe it when Col signalled 5 minutes before we ascend. 28 minutes bottom time was over just to quickly and we started the assent and began the series of stops. On the Sunday we again met at Burghead but it was to be just Col and me with Charlie as a cox. The dive was to be the San Turbica. I would like to tell you more about it but I don’t know anything. I have a book that took some time to find, it is called Dive Scotland vol III and it’s crap. This wreak isn’t even in it. However it is a big ship broken in two and lies in 28 to 38 metres. On this dive it was to be the torch of buddy Col that was to refuse to work but his backup was more than up to the job. Again Col had planned the dive so I just dived his plan and hung around whilst he did the deco stops. The Moray Firth is a really lovely place to visit I was very reluctant to leave not just because of the offer of a night dive on Tuesday but because the diving is good and the countryside is beautiful, however the people make you feel so welcome. I have Col to thank for ensuring that I got to dive here, without him it would not have been possible without waiting around for a week. I left the Moray Firth on Monday and made my way up to the north coast and took the ferry to the Orkneys. It was dark when I arrived at Stromness Caravan park but I knew that it was right on the Flow. In the morning I couldn’t believe it,. The Caravan is two metres from the water. I couldn’t be nearer if I was on a liveaboard. I called in to see Sarah and Ben (Scapa Scuba, I did my drysuit course with them and adventure diver they also made my silly horned hood) then to hopefully catch Hazel the skipper of Stormdrift, when her boat comes in. Scapa Flow is the water surrounded by the islands of Orkney. a group of islands north of Scotland, the sea separating the islands had ships sunk (on purpose) between them to create a enclosed area of sea. This is called Scapa Flow and was at one time a very important part of British Naval strategy. In the first world war the British thought that they had all shipping coming in and out of the flow monitored, one German U-boat (UB-116) tried to enter and was detected and sunk however years later in 1939 on one particularly high tide another U-boat (U-47) did get into the flow over the top of the block ships. The result of this was that HMS Royal Oak was sunk with a torpedo and 833 men died. The Royal Oak is still there but it is a protected war grave and it’s illegal to dive within 100 metres of it. At the end of the first world war Germany signed an Armistice, which was a cease fire while terms of surrender were agreed. The Kaiser’s Imperial High Seas Fleet were in port where they had remained, penned in for most of the war. A condition of the Armistice was that 74 ships were to be disarmed and taken to a neutral port if at all possible. However, the High Seas Fleet were taken by escort to Scapa Flow. The crews on the fleet were disheartened and revolution had broken out in Germany and a new communist government had taken power. The Fleet were kept in the Flow for months and the timeframe by which the Armistice was agreed was being continually extended. News was withheld from the German crews and the leader a Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided that as the Armistice was to end the state of War was to be resumed. He did not want the ships to fall into enemy hands therefore he gave the command to scuttle the fleet. This was at mid day on the 21st June 1919. The sea-cocks had been opened and the mechanisms for closing them were disconnected and damaged, the ships slowly and quietly began to take on water and sink. When the British who were guarding them realised what was going they panicked and a few fights broke out resulting in 8 German deaths, the men who died here were the last of the first world war. The British tried to board boats and tow boats to shallower water to beach them. In the end 47 ships sank. The scuttling of the fleet at Scapa was the greatest loss of ships ever in one go and also the most ships sank by one man. Reuter took full responsibility for the sinking and was decorated for it. What he also unwittingly did was make Scapa Flow one of the worlds best dive sites. Most of the scuttled fleet have been salvaged, ironically a lot of the armour plate was sold to Krupps and used to build ships like the Bismark and Terpitz for Hitlers Navy. Seven ships of the scuttled fleet remain in in the waters of Scapa. The three Battleships are all inverted due to the weight of their guns, when they took on water they became top heavy and rolled over. When these ships were built they were some of the biggest ships in the world at over 25,000 tons each, the Konig which lies in 40m metres, Kronprinz Wilhelm in 34 metres and Markgraft at 42metres. All of the ships have been blasted in places to give salvage access to the non ferrous metals, this also means that divers can get a good look inside. Because of the sheer size of these vessels, when diving, on your decent it gives the impression that your on the seabed not on the underneath of a battleship. The other ships that remain are four light cruisers the Brummer (36 metre), Coln (35 metre), Dresden (34 metre) and karlsruhe (24 metre) these all lie on their sides. There is a further ship, V83 this was a torpedo boat (destroyer) it was scuttled and then raised by the salvage company who used it to help re-float the Hindenburg, when this was achived she was dumped in her present position. V83 is broken in two and well broken up, she lies between 20 metres to as shallow as 5 metres. Scapa Flow boasts 92 wreak sites and 54 further unidentified or unknown wreak sites it is a sheltered area covering 120 square miles. In the morning in the main harbours there are many boats full of divers waiting to explore. When I was settled I thought that I would be able to get diving at one of the most famous dive sites in the world quite easily. How wrong was I? All of the boats leave Stromness Harbour in the morning and don’t return until evening. This was going to be awkward as I had the dogs and I wasn’t prepared to leave then all day on there own. The weather was changing constantly. Hot sun then cloud and wind. The first two days when the sun shone it was hot, not hot like in Egypt or even hot like in England but hot never the less. When the sun was out I witnessed a totally different type of person, the locals wore summer clothes and the guys took off their shirts. What this revealed was that the flesh of the local population was blue, yes blue, a very pale blue. If it was a paint colour it would be called bluebell white. I’m used to seeing Russians on holiday in Egypt and they are very white but not this blue white. I was told that after a couple of weeks in the sun that they go white and loose the blue. I asked around the locals for a dog sitter and after three days a suitable responsible adult was found. He was recommended by several of the locals as being very reliable. The guy’s name was James and he would be a whole story on his own but as promised he was waiting when I arrived. I had telephoned several dive boat skippers that were out but they were either full or were chartered and they wouldn’t let me on, even the boat with just two guy’s from Germany wouldn’t let me join them. I was quite happy to dive solo all I required was a means to get to the wreaks. Hazel was not out but she was booked from Sunday with a group from Brunel University BSAC who wouldn’t mind if I joined them, but this was Thursday and I’d been here three day’s already with no diving. A little chat with Hazel and I was diving off her boat “Stormdrift” on the Friday and the Saturday. This was to be the best diving of the trip so far. I was not just diving solo but I had the whole boat to myself. This meant that I could dive what wreaks I wanted for as long as I wanted. I had dived solo before in the Red Sea but that was nice clear blue water and not that deep. This was to be low viz and deco on my YBOD and a drysuit, but when I thought about it, I had always dived solo. From very early on I carried redundancy in the form of my pony, most of my diving has been leading others where your always aware where they are and how much air they have and their limitations. I have never relied on anyone else underwater outside of where I have been the student. This was diving for me, it was my holiday and my boat and it was to be diving without concern for anyone other than myself. Dive 1 in Scapa Flow was to be the Dresden. I had arranged to leave Sam and Nova with James (the local dog sitter) for the days that I was to dive. I dropped then off and then met Hazel, the captain of “Stormdrift”. Hazel was Making the boat ready as I arrived, I passed my kit down to her which was not a small task as I seem to carry loads of it. We cast off and set sail for the Dresden. The Dresden was the name-ship for the Dresden II class and rests on her port side in water ranging from 25 to 45m. Although the hull is well preserved the weather deck of the Dresden is collapsing to port. This collapsing is exposing the underside and burying the forward armaments in the mud of the area. Built in Kiel and launched on 25th April 1917 she was scuttled at 11.30 hrs on 21 June 1919. Displacing 5600 tons and 156 metres long she was the heaviest of the light cruisers of the fleet she carried two and a half inch thick armour plating with 8 5.9 inch guns. As I dropped down the shot line I went nice and slowly as I had read how the huge hulls come into vision all of a sudden as you fall within the visibility field. This is different to the Red Sea Wreaks where you can make out the ship as soon as you begin your decent and true to form the huge hull appeared as if from nowhere. I won’t go into detail about the dive as there are many accounts on the state of fleet and what there is to see. One of the highlights of the dive was that I was all alone and by that I don’t just mean diving without a buddy I was the only diver on the wreak at that time and that made it that little bit special. Dive 2 was the Karlsruhe. This is in the worst condition of all of the Cruisers because it is situated on the west side of Cava where there is stronger currents, it is also the shallowest of the wreaks in only 25metres. The damage is worse towards the stern. The Karlsruhe was built at Wilhemshaven and launched on 31st January 1916, she was scuttled at 1550 on 21st June 1919. !51 metres long and armed with eight 5.9 inch guns she carried two and a half inch thich armour plate and was capable of 27-28 knots at a sprint. Like the Dresden I had this wreak all to my self and although it was well broken up it was enjoyable. Day 2 dive one (Saturday), this is the day that the diving groups change around so dive boats don’t usually go out. We were one of two boats in the whole flow. The first dive was to be the Markgraft, this is a Konig class battleship and she lies on her starboard side superstructure in 45metres of water and is the deepest of the scuttled fleet. A great deal of the bow of the ship is missing and salvage has also damaged the stern quite badly. Built in Bremen and launched on the 4th June 1913 she was scuttled at 16.45 on the 21st June 1919. This was a long deep dive and I was at or around 45 metres for 33 minutes then I sent up a DSMB and did the deco. In all the dive was 55 minutes Dive two was the debris field of the Seydlitz this is midway between Rysa Little and Cava. The Seydlitz was salvaged and when the salvagers had her in tow she was dragged along the bottom of the seabed thus leaving a trail of the contents of the upper decks. A nice second dive at 22 metres, I decided to drift off the debris and see what the bottom of Scapa Flow had to show. First thing that I noticed was how much coal that there is just on the sea bed, then I found a broken mug. I next came across a buried cable with an eye above the seabed then there was a second eye and I decided to see where the cables would take me. The visibility was about 12 metres and I could see a ridge appear on the seabed in front of me it was about a metre high and ran as far as I could see to either side. As I aproached the ridge I realised that it was a submarine net that was lying along the sea bottom it had become apart of the bottom and now forms a mini reef .I bagged off and ascended shortly afterwards. Total dive time 58 minuets. Day three dive one. We were to dive the Kronprinz Willhelm however the shot line had gone and as I was now on the boat with Brunel University BSAC I was diving there choice. This was to be their shakedown dive and they formed a group of experienced and novice divers. They couldn’t dive the boat without a shotline so it was back to the Karlsruhe for me. As I was kitting up I had put my in my mouth whilst I put my knife on, then I was pre breathing the loop and when that was done there was no sign of the Viper so my Viper was missing. Was I pissed off or what. I know that it is a couple of years old but it hasn’t done that many dives and I like to use it as a bottom timer come backup as the numbers are big and I’m getting old and my eyesight doesn’t seem too great at anything above 30 metres. I looked around the boat but no luck. The dive was fine however as I had dived it before I took off on the sea bed around looking at the debris and remembering dives with my now lost friend Viper. The second dive was the F2 and YC21, The F2 was a Second world war German escort vessel similar to a Destroyer. She was built in Kiel in 1936 and displaced 790 tons when launched, She was lengthened and lightened and her armourment changed in 1939. She sank at her mooring in !946 and now lies in 18 20 metres. After diving the F2 you follow the bow and you come across a propeller fixed up right on the sea bed then 30 metres from the F2 is the wooden barge YC21. This was a salvage barge and was salvaging the F2 when she sank, she still has a 20 millimetre anti –aircraft gun in her hold that she had salvaged from the F2. As I approached the YC21 I was greeted by a very playful seal who was happy to play with me. I think he was curious towards the diver without the bubbles. He went and I started my assent and he returned as was doing the deco and kept swimming by. Day Four was to be the Brummer. Built at Stettin and launched on the 11 December 1915 she was a “Kleiner Kreuzer” (light cruiser) designed for fast mine laying. The name “Brummer” translates to “Bluebottle” (house fly) and even with a full cargo of 360 mines she could outrun many of the British Fleet. The Brummer lies in 36 metres on her Starboard side and although she has been blasted for salvage she is still very much in tact. The second dive was the V83. This was a torpedo-boat (Destroyer) she was built in Hamburg in 1916 and although she was scuttled she was raised by salvagers and used to salvage other vessels. When the Hindenberg was salvaged she was sunk in her present posision of the East side of Rysa Little. The V83 is broken in two and lies in 8 metres and 20 metres. After diving this wreak I followed the seabed down the slope going deeper and I came across the remains of several old mines and depth charges. However they could have possibly been floats and weights for Submarine nets but would prefer to think of them as the former. Day 5 was to be my last day The weather was to be getting worse we were to start at 8.30 instead of nine. I was nearly killed by the snooze and saved by the bob hat. When the alarm went off I just kept pressing snooze and then I realised that it was an earlier start and that I hadn’t yet packed the scrubber. I rushed when I was packing it but it seemed ok. I got everything into the car and was ready to set off when I remembered that my bob hat was still in the caravan. It was to be cold and wet but I could do without it but it was a present from a good friend, Anders who has always wanted to dive Scapa so I had been taking it with me every day so that I can tell him where the hat had been. I reluctantly returned for it, silly I know as I risked missing the boat but I did. When I went to pick up the hat there was an “O” ring and collar next to it that should have been inside the scrubber. Without the “O” ring and collar carbon dioxide would easily pass the scrubber and I would pass out and drown. So The snooze made me rush and make mistakes and the hat made me notice that the scrubber was not assembled correctly. The ropes where being untied as I arrived. On the boat I sat in the saloon with Sam, the expedition leader from Brunel BSAC. I asked him what they had planned for today, he was looking in the books and I suggested the Kronprinz Wilhelm and he knew that I wanted to dive it and agreed. The kronprinz Wilhelm was built in Kiel and launched in November 1914. She was a Konig class battleship and a sister ship of the Konig and the Markgraft. They were some of the largest Dreadnaughts that the world had ever seen. Today she lies in 35 metres of water and rests on her starboard main deck with much of the superstructure embedded in the silty bottom. She is in the best condition of all three Battleships. When I was back on “Stormdrift “ hazel was concerned that I had quite a bit of blood in my mask. I hadn’t had a fast assent and I had hung around 8 more minutes than I needed on deco just to put the hours up so I wasn’t unduly worried but there was quite a bit of it. The next dive was to be my last and I had two ships remaining on my wish list. The Coln and the Konig. The Coln is considered by many to be the best dive in Scapa Flow and the Konig is another Battleship that was so top heavy that it is virtually upside down. I again chatted with Sam and as the Coln is in shallower water it was chosen. The Coln is another Light Cruiser and was built in Hamburg and launched on the 5 October 1916. She was a very fast ship capable of 29 knots she lies in 35 metres of water and rests on her starboard side at 90 degrees, she has split creating some amazing swim through’s. I followed a group of three who all wanted to fin like crazy, I was soon in a silt out and couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I waited a couple of minutes to see if it would clear, it didn’t and I had to feel my way out. I did get to the stern before them and entered first but they didn’t follow anyway so I had a good look around. It was a little tight getting out at the stern but then again I’m not small. I watched everyone else bag off. They were all diving open circuit and by now would have wound up their computers so their bottom times would be getting much shorter and their deco times much longer. I turned around to fin once more over the wreak for the last time in Scapa. I again had it all to myself and that special feeling returned. I bagged off and did the stops adding a further 7 minutes, (it all goes towards the hours) I could taste the blood so knew the nose was bleeding again. When I surfaced I again had blood in my mask. I was the first back on the boat and I looked around the sparse landscape of Scapa knowing that I will return. Hazel and her boat “Stormdrift” are a pleasure to dive with. There is always a kettle on and biscuits on a plate. After each dive your presented with fruit which is very pleasant after having rubber in your mouth for over an hour. “Stormdrift” has compressors and O2 on board so fills, Nitrox fills and decanting into your re-breather are no trouble. Hazel is also a Tri-mix trained diver with lots of experience, not a fisherman who has converted his boat. She is a mind of useful information and one of those people who you could talk to for hours, it was really nice to meet her. On Thursday I departed Scapa Flow and the Orkneys, I drove down the East Coast and made my way back to St Abbs where I had been offered a space on a Huddersfield BSAC trip. They had had a cancellation so I obliged. The diving on the Saturday was really low visibility as the tides were over 6 metres high and the water like a washing machine. I enjoyed them just the same. On the Sunday it was still high tides but the weather had changed as the wind had dropped. The diving was much better as you could see more than a metre. I’m now back in Manchester the trip has now ended and the kit is washed off and packed ready for the next outing. All I need is a plan!
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