Scapa Flow Day 6 - Achilles & Hector - 14/06/2018

There are few dives on the planet where your maximum depth is below the seabed. There are fewer like that still that you'd also dive in the midst of a storm. The weather forecast hadn't been great with Storm Hector passing through. We had a limited time window. The plan was to dive the SMS Bayern gun turrets, like the Markgraf the day before according to a pretty strict plan. We plopped in and dropped down on the main turret. We looked about for half an hour, dipping below the seabed to have a look inside the turret, before very slowly heading back to the surface.

At the surface the weather was changing. The sea was slowly changing in into a lumpy mess that was enough to convince most divers on the boat to skip out the opportunity to dive the F2 - a nazi built WW2 wreck.

Despite the maelstrom on the surface, beneath the surface it was calm, shallow and scenic. For the first time in the week I was leading. 

Back on the surface I looked into the storm and I felt a little like Achilles calling out Hector.

Scapa Flow Day 5 - The Mighty Mighty Markgraf - 13/06/2018

The SMS Markgraf and SMS Brummer wre our targets for the day. The Markgraf would end up our deepest dive of the week and the point at which I started putting my limited technical dive planning skills to use.

The dive was the deep wreck, highlight of the week.Which was weird because it was followed by the worst - the SMS Brummer. I won't say anything about the Brummer. It really wasn't worth the O2, but it ticked a box. The SMS Markgraf however....

The dive started near the bow where we followed a heavy chain down to the seabed and started working our way to the stern and the phenomenonally huge rudders. before returning along the upturned keel back to the rope care of a very pleasant drift.

It's really hard to explain the scale of the wreck, or how pleasant it was to dive.

Plan the dive, dive the plan

Scapa Flow Day 4 - Battleships & Butterfish -12/06/2018

Our fourth day on ‘the Flow’ saw us dive our first Battleship. The SMS Kronpronz Wilhelm was the the target followed by a ‘shallow’ dive on the SMS Coln.

I was starting to notice my desat times were getting higher and higher, much like my deco penalties. As such it was probably the first day when I consciously took my foot off the diving gas, opting to no deco the Coln as I’d been there before. 

The Kronprinz W. was to be my first glimpse of one of the famous 12” guns. I liked it, though not as much as the Wylie Fox who proved to be a real fan of the big guns. 

I was particularly moved by the way nature had paid no head to the death and destruction mayhem of the guns and had instead used them to grow sea squirts and dead men’s fingers. There’s a metaphor there for life, I think. I was also starting to realise I was more interested in butterfish than battleships.

Scapa Flow Day 1 - Karlsruhe-ins - 09/06/2018

As a club we had decided to go to Scapa Flow. When the idea was first mooted there was considerable excitement, but with the horsetrading of life in the end just three of us were making the trip. In addition, I'd asked around my diving buddies and found another willing participant. That made four.

Now Scapa Flow is one of the jewels in Scotland's diving crown as it is home to the scuttled WW1 German High Seas Fleet. Despite being well north  (8 hours by car and ferry) of Scotland's Central Belt in Orkney it remains quite accessible for those prepared to make the trip. Beyond this I won't give you a detailed history or geography lesson there are websites for this information.

Myself, the Barrman and his Landlady had arrived off the first ferry on the Saturday morning and met the Wylie Fox at our home for the week - the MV Karin. I lucked out and got a cabin to myself.

Our first dive (a check dive) was to be one of the cruisers, the SMS Karlsruhe.

WF was my buddy for the week. She was an experienced veteran of Scapa Flow having dived it around 20 times. I'd therefore be in good hands.

We dropped down the line to around 25m and began exploring. It was a jumble of wreckage suitably described as the "most broken up of the wrecks". We plodded around for 45 minutes before making our way to the surface. We took around 8-10 minutes to surface then headed back to port to get the divers who were coming late in the day. It was a decent enough check dive and allowed me to iron out a few kit wrinkles.

Kit wrinkles