Saturday 28/08/2004BACK TO TOP

A lazy start for the day. Well, it was for us anyway. Luuuke's crowd had stayed in Edinburgh and still had the 5½ hour drive ahead of them. They left at 5.
Meanwhile, we had a gentle brekky from 8. After that, Ryan and I went off to John O'Groats as neither of us had been there before. There was an impressive rip tide running through the Pentland Firth. We took photos and came back to Scrabster for the ferry.
The ferry left on time and didn't take very long at all to make the crossing to Stromness. There was then a mad unpacking of kit: Luuuke's lot on to the Sharon Rose and us on to the John L. There was some kit faff before we relaxed while waiting for dinner in the Stromness Hotel at 8:00. The Stromness Hotel was pretty empty - we had a good meal, then moved over to the Ferry Inn which was a bit more lively.

Sunday 29/08/2004 BACK TO TOP

Up for brekky at 8:00, expertly cooked by Marlene. With some panic sandwich making after that we ended up not being too late on the John L. We then chugged out (the John L only does chugging) to the Dresden. As Ian and I had been stuck making sandwiches we found that everyone else had bagsied each other for diving, so we ended up going in together. To spite everyone we decided to make quite a big dive of it.
We went down the shotline first the wreck appeared at 20m. Viz was good, 5 - 10m and it was quite bright. At the bottom we changed setpoints, then I started up my latest gadget - my underwater mp3 player. I was then treated to The Flower Kings and Transatlantic throughout the rest of the dive :o)
The Dresden is lying on its port side. We went toward the back, floating a metre off the seabed. We came across the bridge, with its narrow viewing slits, and then followed the mast out to its end. Back at the wreck we continued aft, seeing the two guns still attached to the deck, pointing aft. After 20 minutes we reached the rounded stern, with the anchor still hanging off it.
We then floated forward with the slight current, until we came to a large opening in the deck. This was too attractive to pass up, so even though we were 38 minutes into the dive it was time for some penetration :o)
So, we went back again, just one deck down. There was light coming down through the occasional holes in the hull above us, that presumably had portholes in them at one time. Eventually we reached the stern again, so turned and exited. Continuing forward along the top of the wreck we found yet another gun, before we came back to the shotline again. We were 60 minutes into the dive, with 20 minutes of stops, so it was time to ascend. The stops were completed and we surfaced, much to everyone else's relief :o)
We parked at Houton for lunch.
After lunch we dived the Karlsruhe. This was shallower and lighter, at least to start with. After about 5 minutes though it suddenly went much darker as it obviously started pouring with rain above.
We followed the debris field aft, poking around the bits and pieces that were scattered around the seabed. Before long we found the stern, where we floated round it and looked at the hull, with the plates all peeled back, and covered in various squidgies. We went forward over the section that has been well salvaged, then sent up a bag as we didn't find the shot again.
It was raining when we surfaced.
We chugged back into Stromness and went to the Flattie Bar for a quick post-dive aperitif :o)
Tess cooked spag bol for tea.
After tea most of the grownups were too tired and we were forced to join the kid's boat for beer in the Ferry Inn.

Monday 30/08/2004 BACK TO TOP

Today was the day to dive the Brummer! Hooray!
Up half-an-hour earlier than Sunday. Rich and Ali made sandwiches, and we were down at the John L for 8:30.
We chugged out, planning our Brummer dives. We kitted up, and just before we were ready to jump in James (the Skipper) announced we were diving the Koln. Oh. Ok! There was the normal wait fully kitted up while the boat chugged to the buoy, and we were in. I was diving with Tess today as Nette had put her foot down and refused to dive with me. We hit the wreck, I changed my setpoint and started the mp3 player, then it was on with the dive.
We floated gently down the side of the wreck, heading toward the bow. Before long we came across the mast with its spotting stations lying out along the seabed. The supporting cables were clearly visible, attached to the mast with huge shackles. Very spectacular.
Back to the deck we continued forward, along the reasonably intact deck. We passed the hawse-pipes before we came to the bow.
We then tracked back along the join of the hull and deck, trying to minimise Tess' decompression requirement. We soon found the shotline again, but continued past it to what appeared to be a mount were there was once a gun, of possibly a small anti-aircraft gun. Did First-World War German naval vessels have anti-aircraft guns? A little further aft and slightly deeper there was yet another gun, a light 2 or 3 cm one.
After that it was back to the shotline and ascending to complete our stops before surfacing. It was cool looking at the waves from underneath.
Back on the John L we were welcomed on board by Cat plying us with very welcome cups of hot chocolate.
We then went to Lyness for lunch, some folk went off to the Naval Museum, but most of us have been there before and didn't bother. The wind had got up and we were entertained by the John L bouncing along the dockside. It wasn't too bad out of the wind (the stern of the John L was pretty sheltered) but up on the quayside it was pretty cold.
Ryan, Anwen and Floss got on the Ferry from Kirkwall and came across to have lunch with us.
After lunch it was off to dive the F2. This was busy - three other dive boats were also there. We descended the shotline to the barge to find it crawling with divers. We found the line to the F2 and traversed over to it. We went to the bow of the F2, and swan beneath it. There we had a bit of a silt fight, which we found very funny but probably wasn't appreciated by everyone else who came there after us. Hopefully most of it got carried away by the current. We looked at the various gadgets on and around the F2, with the current building all the while. Eventually we went back to the barge and ascended back up the shotline. At six meters Tess announced she had 3 minutes of stops so we abandoned the shot and sent a bag up to escape the current. After her three minutes were up she checked her other pooter, only to find that it had three minutes, too. Serial safety stops! Marvellous!
Back on the John L we had to bob in the water for a while while it chugged around collecting people. We were picked up after a few minutes, to be welcomed on board by Cat bearing hot chocolate again. We then chugged back to Stromness into the teeth of the gale, watching the white horses on the sea all around us.
Back in Stromness it was beer o'clock so it was into Flatties Bar again for a couple of swift beers.
Dez and Floss cooked Bangers and Mash for tea. With gravy. Yum! Then it was off to the Ferry Inn to join the 'B' boat for some beer :o

Tuesday 31/08/2004BACK TO TOP

Up at 7:30 for Marlene's brekky again. The sandwiches were done very slickly and we were nearly all on time for the 8:30 leave. It was almost a 2 hour chug to the James Barrie. It started off nice and sunny, but before long the clouds overtook us. It didn't rain, though, but it did get a bit windy.
At the James Barrie, there was already two other boats with divers in. We got kitted up and were ready to jump in.
There was a bit of a delay before we could enter the water though as some divers off one of the other boats had surfaced and were clinging to the shot. They seemed to think it important that they stay there. Lordy knows why - I don't suppose John Thornton wanted to put the Karin on the shot to pick them up. Anyway, after five minutes or so they managed to let go and so they finally got picked up and were out of the way.
I was diving with Nette and Tess, and followed them in. There was surprisingly little current so we descended off the shot, following near it. We hit the wreck at 37 metres. The viz was some 5 - 10 metres, good but not as good as people had been hoping. We did a circuit of the wreck before returning to the shot to ascend. My suit was leaking and I was pleased to be surfacing. We did a nice slow ascent up the line. Once we got to Tess and Nette's stops I left them to it (they were OC and had many more stops than I) and ascended to the surface, hoping to get out and warm up a bit.
As I did so I also overtook most of our other divers too which was quite satisfying :o)
Back on the surface I bobbed in the water while James picked up some other divers. I was happily waiting, listening to the mp3 player thinking I was quite alone when suddenly Chris appeared and swam backwards into me. All that ocean, and he has to swim into me!
Before long the John L chugged over; I made sure that I was at the front of the queue to get picked up :o)
After everyone was back on board we chugged back into the Flow, having a look at the Barrel of Butter as we did so. There was only a couple of seals on it.
We had lunch, then James stopped the boat over the Brummer, and we all fell asleep for an hour, which was most pleasant.
I dived the Brummer with Nette - Tess didn't want to do too many stops and so swapped over to dive with Dez and Chris. I had an hour left on the scrubber - Nette assured me that this'd be enough so I didn't bother to change it. For once there was no other boat there so there was no faff waiting. Nette and I got in first, and plummeted the shot down to the wreck.
We went aft, seeing four guns as we went, dipping in to the odd hole here and there. The Brummer is starting to fall apart quite badly now. We got to the stern, which was quite nice to float off and look back along the wreck. Very impressive.
We then went forward up the wreck, staying a bit shallower. There were some nice swim-throughs that we took. We passed the shotline, then continued upto the now collapsed bow, where it plummeted deep again. We didn't want to do that, so Nette sent up her bag and we ascended. It was a good dive, and I was quite happy with the 10 minutes of stops I had. I was anticipating Nette (on OC) would have 20 minutes or so...
We completed our deep stops and arrived at 6 metres. Nette showed me her computers - the Vytec made no sense whatsoever to me, but it was pretty plain that her VR3 had 41 minutes on it! Oh dear - I had only 30 minutes left on my scrubber...
We hung around while her stops ticked away. When 59 minutes came up I abandoned the breaver and went to open circuit. It didn't seem worth pushing the scrubber for no reason. Another 20 minutes of hanging there passed; Nette had 10 minutes left on her VR3 and I was running low on my 7l bale-out (I'm not very good at OC any more!). I then made the mistake of not paying attention to my depth. I ascended a metre, and before I knew it the increase in volume in my lungs caught me out and I was on my way up. I tried dumping from the lung but not quick enough - I hit the surface. A little lesson for me in using open circuit with the Inspiration!
I got back on the John L, and got my kit off. I was desperate for a wee.
I thought Nette would only have ten minutes of stops left after I surfaced, but she didn't surface. I put my drysuit back on and we swam out the bale out cylinder to her in case she was running low on gas. I could see her at 3m, so we exchanged signals and we found out she only had 5 minutes left - on her Vytec. She finished these, and surfaced - after 111 minutes in the water! Slightly over the 60 minutes we had planned.
Rich and Ali cooked pies for tea, then it was back to the Ferry Inn for a quick beer before bed.

Wednesday 01/09/2004 BACK TO TOP

An early start today. 7 o'clock brekky, 8 o'clock away from the quay. The early start was worth it - we were the first on the Markgraf. This was Ryan's first day's diving so he had a fair bit of faff to do before he could dive. Ricky was upset as he wasn't allowed to dive with the other rebreather divers.
I dived with Ian and Ryan. We had our instructions on which way to go at the bottom of the shot, so we jumped in and plummeted to the bottom. We headed off to the left of the current, down the side of the battleship to the bottom at about 41 metres. There was a fair amount of wreckage along the bottom. We headed forward, soon coming across the casemate guns. There was also some tempting holes. These had to be explored, so in we went. It was fantastic to have the huge deck over our heads. The seabed was quite silty so we took care not to stir it up too much. We soon encountered a solid wall of steel, which we followed round and in under the wreck. Sadly the silt soon came up to reach the deck so there were no big guns to be seen.
There were a couple more holes to be explored - some went quite a long way beneath. There were some fantastic scenes with the green light shining through bits of wreckage. Further forward still there was a large crack were the whole bow appears to be shearing away. We swam into this split. There was a large gun in there - not one of the 12" guns though.
After this bit it wasn't far until we reached the bow. This was quite spectacular rising out of the seabed - it gave a good impression of the monumental size of the wreck. We returned along the side of the wreck, floating up off the bottom to reduce the deco penalty slightly. At 50 minutes bottom time we decided it was time to surface so we started ascending the side of the battleship. The first stop was at 29 metres - we hadn't even got off the wreck for this one!
We then send up bags and continued the 40 minutes of stops we'd incurred. These didn't go too badly - the water was utterly calm and it was hugely relaxing just to hang on the bag and watch the clouds above.
We then had only an hour surface interval before diving the Tabarca. Everyone was ready to do this early - particularly after Dougie missed the wreck on the first pass and had to go round again.
I didn't do this dive. I reckoned I had enough decompression for one day, and after all it's only the Tabarca.
Everyone pretended to enjoy themselves, though.
It was only 20 minutes steam back to Stromness, where we had a quick beer and then most folk went to sleep for an hour or two.
After the sleep people seemed to mysteriously congregate back at The Flattie Bar and a bit of a pre-dinner drinking session broke out. Even the folk off the "B" boat joined us.
Andy and Ricky cooked a rather nice curry for tea - then it was back to the Ferry Inn for a little more beer.

Thursday 02/09/2004BACK TO TOP

Up early again - the John L left at eight. Out we chugged to the Kronprinz Wilhelm. I was diving with Ricky - we managed to get kitted up first and were soon in the water. Down the shot we went, then over the side to hit the bottom at 35 metres. There was already one pair of divers there from another boat. One of them seemed to be walking along the silty bottom, doing no good for the visibility whatsoever. In order to see anything we swam around them - this wasn't difficult when one of them was walking!
There was a fair amount of wreckage lying around the seabed, but as we progressed aft we soon came across the large opening for the 12" guns. Marvellous. We floated in, hovering just below the huge decking that was now over our heads. Before long we got to the turret and had a quick look into the open door into it before progressing round to the front of the turrent where the two 12" guns were spectacularly visible. Fantastic. We floated over the first and then I squeezed in to the end of the second, to where its muzzle is dug into the deck above my head. It is just possible to look down the end of the monstrous barrel. As I went out my way was partially blocked by the forementioned silt-monsters, crawling their way in. I had to float over their heads in order to get out, then continue in the poor viz to the exit.
We then continued to the nicely rounded stern of the wreck, I floated off and was treated to a very pretty display from three diver's torches shining around the up-turned hull.
We then went back forward to the shotline again; we had 10 minutes of stops to do so decided that was plenty, and ascended back up the side of the wreck. I had a couple of minutes of deep stops to do before we cleared the top of the wreck, after which we sent up a deco bag and completed the stops before surfacing.
Back on the John L we didn't get out of our drysuits, instead we chugged over to the Barrel of Butter, where we had a snorkel with the seals. This was fun for a few minutes, but soon got boring.
After lunch we chugged over to the Gobernader Bories. I didn't dive this. Those that did came up complaining that it had collapsed in on itself and is no longer the dive it used to be.
Again it only took 20 minutes to chug back to Stromness.
After a brief rest a few of us took the bus to go and play tourists for the afternoon. Rich (obviously) drove. We went past Houton to Kirkwall, then on to the Italian Chapel and the Churchill Barriers. We had a bit of a photo-stop at these places but didn't hang around long. It was then back through Kirkwall and on to the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brogar. On the way to the latter we had an adventure with the bus - Rich refused to give way down the single track road to the on-coming traffic, instead pulling over to the left... a little too far. Over went the bus and we were down into the ditch. Ooops. It all went like slow motion as the bus went over, which was largely because we were only going slowly at the time.
Those of us in the back escaped out of the back door - the side door was hard against the hedge and wouldn't open. Apart from the alarming angle that the bus sat, there was no real harm done. The only problem is there was no way we could pull the bus out. Fortunately within five minutes a local farmer arrived in his truck, conveniently with a solid tow-rope in it. Within a few seconds he had pulled us out of the ditch and was soon on his way £20 the richer!
We had a quick wiz round the Ring, following an American woman who was insisting on hugging each stone as she went round. Dez and Floss were less respectful and took photos for the special section of their website.
It was then back to Stromness for a quick calming beer in the Flattie Bar before coming home for a lovely tea of chicken and pasta cooked by James and Cat.

Friday 03/09/2004BACK TO TOP

Marlene was late for breakfast this morning. It was quite pleasant to eat my cornflakes in peace and quiet for once. Eventually she arrived and we got to cram down our bacon and eggs before getting off to the John L.
We chugged out to the site of the Bayern's turrets. I'd never dived these before and was quite looking forward to the dive.
I went in with Ricky and Dez. I followed them down the shotline until we hit the upturned turrets. We were soon poking around the machinery, there was some proper engineering here - huge cogs and the breech of one gun just visible inside the turret. Dez seemed to be enjoying the dive hugely - at one point he was happily doing silhouettes of animal shapes with his hand in front of his torch. Despite this he still claims that he wasn't at all narked.
Swimming around the turret we saw another a few metres away off in the gloom, so swam over to it and around it too. Again this is upside down, mostly buried in the silt with their insides exposed. Having done a lap of the second turret we jumped back to the first and continued the lap of that one. Having completed the circuit there wasn't much point in hanging around so we ascended back up the shotline, where I upset Dez by doing deep stops (21m), during which his Vytec added an additional 2 minutes of shallow stops for him.
We completed the stops and surfaced.
Then we chugged through the rain to Houton for a brief lunch stop before returning to the Brummer for our final dive. I dived with Dez and Tess - we planned to do just an easy dive with few stops. I followed them down the shotline, to the hull. I changed my set point up, started the mp3 player off and we set off to look at the now collapsed bow, just forward of the shot. Then we drifted gently back along the deck, looking at the guns as we went. Just aft of one gun I was surprised by a large dark shape suddenly moving off in front of me - it was a seal that had been resting amongst the wreckage.
We completed the gentle drift aft all the way to the rounded stern, where there were other pairs of divers illuminating the wreck and making a most pretty sight. We then went forward along the top of the hull until Dez and Tess indicated that it was time to ascend. I sent up my bag and slowly ascended and performed all our stops before surfacing.
And that was it. The diving was over. We all started packing our various bits and pieces up and getting everything ready for the trip home.