Scapa Flow July 2005

A Northern Adventure

Or Mr Sloan and Mr Moss go cheese hunting.

I met Alex at reading Station on late on Thursday evening and after a take out curry and a few beers we turned in to prepare ourselves for the drive north. I keep forgetting how bloody far it is, but after 12 hours of almost non stop driving and 650 miles get drew into the Weigh In in Thurso. Having made a reasonably early start this meant that it was only 9pm so we had a quick scoff and disposed of a few pints of 70 shilling and crashed out again.
We where booked onto the midday ferry so after an unhurried breakfast we booked out. A visit to Morrison's for some supplies for the first days lunch and it was still early. Thurso may be the only town of any size but don't plan your Christmas shopping expedition there. Half an hour and we had seen it all. Thankfully we found a coffee shop with a huge sofa, so with the Saturday paper we whiled away the remaining time.
The Hamnavoe ferry is still looking bright and shiny and thankfully conveyed us across to Stromness with only one hitch. The last turn into Stromness was performed with such rapidity that I thought that we where in danger of going over! Maybe its just the tide or the skippers get bored but I saw them do it again late in the week. Looked more like Jeremy Clarkson doing a handbrake turn. Some one should tell these guys its not a DB9 there driving!
The familiar site of Stromness appeared in the soon to be familiar drizzle. Once off the boat we met Dougie who delivered ourselves and the our luggage to firstly the boat and then the house. Here we met Maco and Kia the two Germans who along with the group from London made up the rest of the crew for the week. Since it was early evening still we settled down to watch a DVD to chill out and wait for the pubs to open. (Or actually it to be a decent time to go since they don't seem to close on Orkney)
A reacquaint with Deep Fried Orkney Cheddar in the Stromness hotel and a pint of warm Red Macgregor was called for along with some lovely Smoked Macabre. Yum!
Sunday morning saw Marlene in full flow in the kitchen feeding the hungry masses with the full greasy breakfast. Once we could only waddle we where despatched down to the boat. James the skipper greeted us in his usual and we slowly pottered out to the first site. I say slowly it may have been very quickly but the two are indistinguishable on the John L. Full spoon ahead!
Putting my kit together my unit was making a few bleeps from the buzzer. Thinking the first cell was just in need of some o2 I carried on and it seem to settled down. Got to the first site the Dresden and got into the water and straight away it went into full sulk mode. Beep beep beep beep beep! Oh bugger "cell warning"! I binned the dive and Alex joined the Germans as a trio. Hmm now I've got a problem. I have no spare cells, as I put my spare in a few weeks before and I foolishly hadn't got any others. Hmm so I'm the other end of the country from AP valves and its Sunday! Quick call to the trusty Mr Crawford who was a star and came up with the number of John Thornton. By this time we had moved to Lyness for lunch, where guess who was there, but John Thornton in Karin. A quick conversation with JT revealed that he had no spare cells! However he did say have you tried changing them over it may be a dirty contact. During the second dive I tried this and thank you Saint John it worked! The rest of the week my unit behaved faultlessly.
My narrative deviated slightly from the true course of events here as at the end of the first dive one of the group from London surface in distress. James got the John L over to him quickly and we recovered him to find that he was underweighted and had missed 8 minutes of stops. Hmm, time for the magic gas! So we laid him, down and Caroline the crew for the day put him on the demand valve oxygen set. Now it turns out his buddy has also missed stops, admittedly only 1 minute but he gets the same treatment, but since the second valve is constant flow he goes on my o2 clean reg and one of my o2 3 litre bottles. Full spoon ahead and we head for Houton to meet the ambulance. Luckily neither are showing and signs or symptoms so we despatch them to the ambulance teams care and amble back to Lyness for lunch.
Drama over and its back to the usual diving scene. The second dive is the F2, which Alex does with the Germans as I fiddle with my unit.
Monday dawned grey and overcast with drizzle as Sunday had been, it did brighten up during the day but was never exactly hot. I guess this was good acclimatisation for Norway!
With another breakfast slopping around inside us we headed off to the John L slightly early so Alex could pack his scrubber. Once everyone was with us we headed off to the sites for the morning the KPW. Hurrah my unit behaved itself and Alex and I had a good hour long dive on this huge wreck. We got a bit lost in the broken section especially in the less than perfect vis. The warmth (ha ha!) had reached Scapa and the plankton bloom was evident in the top 10m of the water with very murky vis. At about 20m it was better but even at depth it was never more than 5-6m.
The afternoon saw us diving the Karlsruhe. I took camera along and got some rather disappointing shots of the guns. However we travelled the entire wreck at a leisurely pace and had a very enjoyable dive.
We where quite late back in as James the Skipper was doing his PADI advanced open water dives with Caroline the instructor / boat hand so we actually stopped for four dives, although we only did two. This delayed return meant that our plan of cooking for ourselves was put on hold and a fantastic meal of haggis and chips was purchased from the Chip shop.
It was shopping week whilst we where in Orkney and although early on in the week the only sign that the festivities where on was bunting up in the streets, and a makeshift band stand podium outside the Stromness hotel made from plywood, and plastic sheeting. By Tuesday however the local youth had started having water fights and on Tuesday evening we had to run the gauntlet of the children's fancy dress three legged race down the High Street. This was quite a competition with the turning point being at beyond the Dougies b & b. Half's of Orange juice had also to be downed along the way. It does not take a genius to work out what the logical progression of this was and sure enough on Friday the adult three legged race was in full swing when we drooped in to the Stromness hotel for the obligatory refreshment post dive. I hasten to add that the adult course was longer, the halves where not of orange juice and some men in Orkney really shouldn't dress up in women's clothes!
During the week we also saw the raft race (again from the Stromness hotel) and the best event for entertainment was the beer races on Thursday night. Classic commentary for the prize giving included the line…." ah there is no one here to claim the women's prize which was won by the ladies from the Stromness hotel. They are probably warming down as we speak in the Flattie bar"
However away from all this frivolity we got in some serious diving. Tuesday saw us on the Coln though we thought it was the Brummer until after the dive, (no wonder we got a bit confused in the navigation!) In the afternoon the site was the Tabarka, Not having a good record of getting to this wreck I decided to miss it. As it happened so did almost everyone else but they didn't do it on purpose. Wise choice me thinks!
Home cooked Lasagne with excellent sticky cakes form the bakery for tea, was washed down with a couple of pints of Scapa Special from the Stromness hotel. (It sounds like we spent all the time in here… this is only an impression not the truth!)
Wednesday was the Brummer and the F2. I was not having a good week for kit as my suit inflate bottle was empty by the time we got to 11m. The locking nut on the thread had come unscrewed and the recently filled bottle had emptied itself. Rather than spending the dive wrapped like a peace of cheese I binned the dive and returned to the boat. Alex joined me a few minutes later having waited at the bottom the of the shot thinking I had ear problems again. (For the record they behaved faultlessly all week, apart from being deaf in the evening. Still it stopped me hearing the snoring!)
In the afternoon the group from London where dropped off back in Stromness and went off to tour the islands, we however stayed on with Marco and Kia and dived the F" whilst the Germans did the bottle dive. Alex and I had a good long rummage dive on the F2 only becoming separated after 45 minutes. We surfaced with metres of each other and at almost the same time, so all went well in the end. The German contingent came back with loads of treasure. They both dive in the Kiel area, which sounds pretty horrid. Low vis, silt, cold, shipping overhead and some pretty "hot" finds! By hot I mean everything from Morphine ampoules, to rifles, general ordnance, canon balls, buckles, knifesetc. They where delighted with their collection of bottles

Thursday we dived the "mighty Mar Graf" Rather than be completely off my head I limited myself to 40 and sat on top on the bottom (if you follow) of the casement guns. It was bloody dark down there and the vis was a murky 4-5 m. Alex wandered off to look for the guns and joined me later, when we then swam to the stern ( I think) of the wreck and then up the hull.
In the afternoon we dived the Karlsruhe again and had a fantastic dive. I think this is my favourite wreck as it is broken enough to allow for exploration but you can still orientate yourself.
We surfaced again to find that another of the London group was on O2 this time due to only missing 1 Minute of stops. James was n not impressed!
Thursday evening we eat in the Stromness hotel early. As the place was almost fully booked they put us in the still room, which we had to ourselves apart from the stuffed Red deer and the bar full of Whisky!
Friday Marco and Kia joined us for breakfast and then met us on the boat to say good bye before they flew off. They where a great pair and a good laugh. I think next year they are off to Bergen and I think they will thoroughly enjoy it. Hopefully they got home with all their luggage. Kia dive the first two days of the week with his Semi dry as Ba had managed to loose his luggage. It did turn up on Tuesday, however. Tough as he was I don't think too long in 12 degrees in a semi dry is that much fun!
We ambled out into the flow and dived the Brummer finally. It was fabulous though the stern was much more broken than I remember it being. Generally I think the wrecks are breaking up, and the light cruisers particularly will not be recognisable for much longer.
Friday afternoon the London group dived the F2 and the bottle dive however both Alex and I declined.
Errr Friday night saw us in the Stromness hotel again, with a bunch of Vikings. (it was shopping week after all) Retiring early we returned to the B &b and packed for the trip home.
The ferry trip on Saturday was uneventful and the drive home was just long. As we had caught the early ferry we arrived at mine at 8pm.
A good week, lots of hours dive, a reacquaintance with Deep fried Orkney Cheddar and only 1500 miles driven. Thank good ness we are flying to Norway!

Jeremy Moss
23rd July 2005