Scapa Flow 2

From Johan Liljefors:

Hi Julie/Chris

I wanted to drop you a note as a big thank you for making the trip last week happen. I had a really good time as everything went really well - from the boat, the great diving and the group I could not have wished for a better week. Also many thanks Chris for putting up with me all week as a dive buddy.

Report from Steve Whetnall

Photos to follow.

Friday

Drove up from sunny Wales today. The drive was relaxing slow but steady. The clouds darkened as we passed Glasgow. We had already met up with Kevin from Holywell Subaqua in the Lakes. We met up again for lunch in Dobbies in Sterling. Chicken with black pudding stuffed inside, an unusual combo, not unpleasant.

Stopped off in Pitlochry on a whiskey trawl for Martin. Saw a £1500 bottle of malt. Stopped in Aviemore for fuel and got served by a Sri Lankan duffer, but a nice guy. Got to our hostel about 6; a huge barn of a place. A former school gym with dark pitch-pine paneling a huge wood burning stove. Spotlessly clean with a huge kitchen; enough equipment to feed a small company.

In for about five minutes and then went pub, then fish and chips. The Mirage chippy, I'm not sure about the decor; a full size plastic model of a American highway cop, very Dagesk and a life size lamp made up of a woman's legs in fishnets and a basque lampshade. Massive fish. Slow stuffed walk to other pub.

It had Echo and the Bunnymen on the juke box, oh those were the days. Beer, Sheepshagger, was shite, sheep piss more like. Left pub to go back to original pub, had a few sensible beers and went back to the hostel. Had a whiskey with mart and a German called Christian, he admitted to me to being a psycho mass murderer.

Saturday

After a very warm shower and some toast provided by Chris, we set off to Scrabster. I passed the shop that made my wedding ring in Thurso and then on to the port. 10 pound parking and a walk along the jetty. The viz looks good and the local seal thinks so too.

We packed all the gear in a wooden trolley and set off for Orkney. The weather was a bit up and down so we detoured south to the main entrance to the flow. We passed by the old WW2 gun emplacements and in the distance under a low cloud we could see the town.

Stromness sits a little like Port Stanley along the shore surrounded by low hills. We found the Valkyrie lying, squat alongside the other side of the harbour wall as we docked. She looked a very competent seagoing vessel. Like a trio of hobos we pushed and pulled our gear trolley over to our new home for the week. Unpacking the gear was easy with Hazel and Lennie sorting the crane. after that we made the required pilgrimage to both dive shops and then on to the pub for tea. We met Kevin again and swapped stories and pints. Back to the boat for ten left us time for a coffee, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Sunday

I got up pre-seven for a cold shower, Lennie seems to be the only one who can coax some warmth from the shower. I don't mind, it clears the head.The grey blanket pushed lower towards us, and it brought drizzle. Great brief for the first dive on the Karlsruhe 2, so I had a good map of the wreck in my head as we descended the shot. First in and the viz was ten metres maybe more.

The first thing is the main guns on their side. With thick steel guards and massivebreech blocks they look trouble. A short trip to the bow and then a long swim along the length of the boat, 100 or so metres. We went past the armoured control bridge, lots of big fish and more big guns. We slowly came round the stern and glided over the hull to the shallowest part of the hull. I know I'm new to Scapa, but it was magnificent, in the same way the Pyramids or the Grand Canyon are magnificent. Sort of takes your breath away - not a good thing when diving.

We came back on the buoy and onto the lift, sat down and tea'd all within about a minute - or so it seemed. Speaking to Hazel and Lennie later and they were saying that we were an unusual group in that by the time we got to the first wreck we were ready (most groups usually struggle to get their gear sorted on the first day), and we had no hassles jumping into a sea state force 6. All this without anyone forgetting anything; fins, mask, gloves, doing up their dry suit etc.

A nice soup for lunch, and cold cuts! And on to our second dive of the day. Again another great detailed brief from Hazel and we were in. We were on the barge straight way and into the workshops. Two anti aircraft guns lay pointing the way back but we just kept on. We followed a line to the F2 and straight onto the bridge area.

Loads of Wrasse and other wildlife . We took advantage of a great swim through on the way back to the bow, great. The viz was six metres and the dive took us to 16 metres max. After nearly an hour Martin made that he was cold - a leaky neck seal it turns out had flooded his suit. Superb day, I fear we'll struggle to beat it, but if I know the crew of this boat, then anything's possible.

Monday

We left Stromness early under a cloud of drizzle, but that soon cleared up. We were on site on the SMS Brummer after a short hike and the rain stopped and the wind died down to a flutter.

As we descended the shot we picked up a bit of weed, and as we reached the seabed the plankton suspended in the water made the viz murky; it was still 6 - 8 metres though, better than you would expect on an exceptional day in North Wales. Down to the control tower and then a short swim forward to see the majestic bow and prow of this beautiful ship. The bow curved away like a scimitar blade through the water until you couldn't see it any more. We then swam back over and through the boat to the stern.

After racking up barely 5 minutes deco we started to ascend on a bag. A gas switch at 18 and then short deco stops and we were back on the surface. It seemed that we were on the boat and sat down with a cuppa in less that 5 more minutes.

After a "light" lunch of a full fried breakfast we dived the second dive of the day. A U boat in about 30 metres. It was supposed to be pretty small and well broken up having been exploded by the navy in the sixties.

It was indeed quite small and well broken up but what a dive. I saw the wreck when I was still at 15 metres, covered in fish and life. There was loads to see; congers, ballast bottles, and hatch covers. You could see from one end of the boat to the other. Visibility was 20 metres minimum.

As we came up I stopped for a deep stop at 15 metres and as I looked down I could make out the whole wreck and all the bits that had been blown 20 metres away, and all the divers from our boat, absolutely amazing. This was the best viz I've ever had in a UK dive - brilliant.

We put into port at Barray on a small island at the south west end of the flow. We had a hike over the Churchill barrier and found an old concreted block-ship that had been covered by the ever-increasing sand dune so that only the wheelhouse was left above the surface.

Another amazing meal on board and pub - Kronprinz Wilhelm tomorrow.

Tuesday

As we were leaving Barray the sea settled and an almost flat calm covered us. The boat tootled its way into the flow and as it made its way to the Kronprinz Wilhelm. Hazel summoned us to a dive brief. Thebrief was anything but, and as a result of all her briefings I had a clear picture of what to expect before I got anywhere near the wreck.

We dropped on the buoy straight away despite another ship making it to the dive site first. We all fell on the buoy and plummeted like sky divers for the upturned hull of this majestic ironclad battle ship. The prize was to catch a glimpse of the famous big guns; alas this we missed by some margin.

We went like rabbits into the first hole wefound and got lost. After a short spell gathering our thoughts deep in the ship we made our way out. With relief we made our way along the side of the ship and on to the upturned hull. By this time deco was less than five minutes and with a gas switch at 17 metres deco fell to 2 minutes.

Another biglunch as we rocked on the site of the second dive. Again we all seemed to enter the water like paratroopers in a stick and we were on the wreck of the Dresden in minutes. We swam along to the bow and then back to the armoured control room. Past this and we found the massive davits that once launched the ship's pinnis.

There were several insulation bricks from the turbine scattered along the floor a little way past this and then we turned around. The ships mast lay outfrom the ship and we found the crow's nest at the end. We then explored the inside of the ship where the deck had been ripped from the ship like an open can ofsardines. Large rooms led to small hatch ways and into the ship. We then made our way to the hull and along to the bow.

We got into about 5 minutes deco, no problems though as we came up with another pair off the next boat along.

When we got into port we had two hours to kill before tea so we had a wander that inevitably ended in the pub. Dinner was a great big piece of quiche, a huge pot of sausage casserole and a gigantic banoffee pie. After that therewas a real need to walk it off, unfortunately I trusted Adshead to lead the walk. Several miles and a few wrong turns we made it up to the top of Stromness hill.The path as always ended up right outside the pub.

It seems like the Gods were conspiring to keep us in a constant state of inebriation. We met up with Kevin andthe lads from Flint Subaqua, they seem to have had a troublesome few days, missing deco, falling outs, crap skipper etc. I think we're blessed with the club members we have and the boat and crew we're diving off.

Wednesday

The first wreck of the day was washed out because there were two dive boats on site already so we diverted to the Seiner Majestie Shiff Koenig at 40 metres.

We dropped on the shot and that took us to the rudder section of the ship. We made our way along the hull of the ship past various holes that had been opened up in the hull during the salvage operation. Armoured steel had been ripped open as if it was paper and great holes showed what were once the guts of the battleship. Our groupseemed to swarm around the holes and make their way as a team along the hull. We stayed with them for some of the way but then began to make our way to the midship section of the hull where more holes lay gaping in the hull.

We popped a bag and went for a bit of deco and a gas switch on the way up.

The second dive was on some Anti Aerial Torpedo Close Protection Pontoons. Sounded a bit iffy, but it turned out to be quite a nice second dive. We hit the barge on the side and made a big circle around it to the right. There were anti-torpedo nets in big piles all around. Lots of crabs and small fish now use the nets as home.

We did a swim through under the pontoon and came out next to several large balls; the floats for the net. After that we made our way over the top and then back up the shot. Really nice gentle second dive.

We had a big dinner and then 5 of us decided to go for a walk along the coast to the Stromness gun emplacements, very nice. Pub for a pint, but I left early to fettle with my twinset. Magraf in the morning.

Thursday

Got up early enough expecting to see a pretty sorry sea state, but the weather and the sea had calmed. We got on site and kitted upbefore 9am. We planned to go down the forward shot onto the hull of the Magraf and then work our way to the bow and off to the right then after ten minutes deco leave the wreck.

Well we dived the plan and made our way past the break in the hull where the underwater torpedo tubes used to be and on to the bow. We dropped down the right hand side of the hull and made our way to the bow. We stopped, turned our torches off and just took in the huge knife of steel that left the sea bed and went up as far as you could see. The visibility was superb at 8 -10 metres.

I buried my computer in the sea floor and got 46.5 metres. We then left the bow and made our way to the case make guns on the side of the ship. Three huge guns sat there waiting for action, looking very competent.

After we racked up ten minutes of deco we made our way up to the top of the hull. It seemed a very long way to the top of the hull from the sea bed. Once there we sorted out the SMB and "sent the bag up", great. 10 or 15 minutes of deco time later and we were up and on board.

We had drifted so far on our deco that we were over a completely different battleship. What a brilliant dive, well planned, well executed, just perfect.

For all the moaning about this particular dive, the Gumnan Hellcat turned out to be a good way to spend an afternoon's diving. 36 metres with quite good viz allowed us see the whole of the aircraft in its final resting place. A large radial engine showed the front and with the, still intact, petrol tank behind, you could easily get the plane orientated. The wings came into view with their machine guns laid clearly out. We took a bearing from the rear of the plane and headed off into the gloom for the propeller.

We swam around for a bit until we felt lost but then lucked upon the propeller. After the propeller we also found the other part of the undercarriage, so unwittingly,we had actually found the whole wreck.

After getting into 10 minutes deco on a dive Martin made clear he wanted to spend no more than 5 minutes on, we surfaced and we were back on board in 5 minutes. Not so much complaining from Martin after that nice dive though.

We made our way to Kirkwall onthe bus. We were taken advantage of by the bus driver who promised us a return bus in an hour. We never got back until after midnight. We did however return with trophies; some Scapa Ale glasses from the bar.

Friday

Today we dived the Coln, a cruiser sat in 36 metres on it's side. This wreck, however, is the most intact battleship that we've dived on so far.

We dropped on the mid-ships section of the boat and as agreed beforehand we went in the direction of the stern. The bulk of this lovely ship spread away in front of us as we made our way aft. On theway we came across the two rear 6 inch guns and the officer's quarters. At the stern we stopped as we came across the anchor, still sat in its place. We then came up onto the upper side of the deck and through a swim through and on to the very impressive armoured command centre. We swam to the bow and then back up to the top of the hull and popped a bag and some deco; 15 minutes and then back onto the boat - 55 minute dive, easy.

In the afternoon we were dropped on the Karlsruhe for the second time this trip. As the wind was up and the sea state was force 7, we had to get in quick and drop on the shot as quick as we could; no "tea bagging".

We all descended the shot on to this lovely wreck. We came off the hull and dropped by the davits, then made our way to the stern guns. We went past the pinnis engine, the armoured control and the mid ships guns. We found the very imposing 6 inch rear guns and then carried on to the stern.

At the stern there was a small swim through, but then we encountered another party who were like locusts. They were rooting into every opening they could kicking up the silt. We avoided these by popping up to the top of the hull. We chose at this point to end the dive. A couple of minutes deco brought an end to our diving trip in Scapa.

I would just like to thank Saints Divers for a brilliant week; Tony and Iain for sharing their expertise - on everything, Paul for his quiet and efficient way of doing things, Mark and Anita for their patience with mine and Martin's attempts to plough the seabed, James who just got on and did it, no fuss, Keith, the cockney, and his gentle manner, and Big Chris, Yoda, who made it safe for us all.

The best week's diving I've ever experienced.

Steve Whetnall