Scapa Flow Day 3 - Mary Poppins - 11/06/2018

Day 3 on board the MV Karin was going to follow a very similar pattern to the previous day. 

Step 1. Dive a German High Seas Fleet Cruiser

Step 2. Eat

Step 3. Dive a a blockship

Our plan was therefore to dive the SMS Coln and then dive the Tabarka blockship.

I was settling into the routine, the diving while deep and technical was actually pretty straight forward.The Coln passed without incident for myself and the Wylie Fox. It was impressive and to someone who isn't a 'wreck guy' was fairly recognisable. We had spent about 40 minutes below 30m before starting to come up doing around 20 minutes of deco. Simple.

However, it was the shallow Tabarka that through me for a spin and reminded me how things can change quickly. Diving as a four, we had waited for slack water. I had WF's advice ringing in my ears - just get to the wreck an meet me there. 

So, I junmped in and got down. I was joined by the Landlady then the Barrman. We headed as a three towards the wreck where we met up with WF. We explored the inside, saw the boilers of the old steamer then headed towards the exit. The kelp was flat and the tide was running fast. 

The skipper had mistimed the tide and so the dive plan needed to change. WF and I put up an SMB as did the others. We emerged on the leeward side of the tide at which point WF's SMB acted as a sail and swept her away with the surface current. It was almost magical, a bit like Mary Poppins. This left me in a bottom current going the opposite direction and effectively on my own. I watched the others struggle with their own SMBs before deciding to go it alone.*

I popped up my own SMB and enjoyed the instant feeling of being whisked away. It was fun. Some time later I surfaced. It had been quite a ride. 

Coln Gun

Nudi

In the Tabarka

In the Tabarka

* I don't recommend solo diving, but myself and WF had agreed that as we both had redundancy the usual look around for a minute didn't apply. It's debatable if it's right or wrong, but we work on the presumption that we're solo diving anyway.

Scapa Flow Day 2 - SMS Dresden & the Copa Cobana - 10/06/2018

OK, there is a slight possibility I misheard the name of the wreck when I was informed of the day's itinerary. However, my error made the second dive of the day feel a little more tropical. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The SMS Dresden was to be our 2nd ship of the High Seas Fleet to be ticked off. It is deeper than it's sister ship the SMS Karlsruhe and in better condition. So I was prepared for the wreck action to really start to heat up. To compliment this I'd bought an additional Fourth Element thermal from Scapa Scuba because I knew that long deco stops = cold Frewbowski.

The SMS Dresden was definitely more like what I expected. Even I could recognise the guns and enjoyed numerous easy swim-throughs that allowed you to feel that you were exploring something a little bit special. Thanks to my top I also definitely stayed warmer as WF and I racked up around 20 minutes of decompression.

It turned out our second dive was a blockship - the SS Gobernador Bories. She was a pleasant little boat in the shallows surrounded by kelp and nudibranchs. Lots of nudibranchs - including some of my favourites! 

The wreck also provided a confidence boost to the Landlady who was a little reluctant to swim in an overhead environment. She and the Barrman joined #teamdeeppenetration and never looked back after this point enjoying her first wreck penetration, first drift dive and first nudibranch.

I was genuinely excited by the volume and variety of nudibranchs around the wreck. I'm not sure I'd ever seen such a concentration. I briefly thought of Jester who'd of been burning his camera battery at the sight.

With that, diving was done for the day.

Dresden 5" Gun

Aplysia Punctata

Janolus Cristatus

Sea Lemon

#teamseeppenetration

Looking through

Drifting

Deco stops