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Sept 2008Club Trip to Scapa Flow |
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Stromness Once again the club had decided on another visit to Scapa Flow. It has become a popular venue with members over the last 5 years, with this being the 4th visit within this time period. Oddly enough, mostly by the same members who seem to enjoy the calm conditions, clear visibility and exciting wrecks on offer. (Hardly surprising considering Scapa is considered to be the top UK dive site.) Ron Smith was kind enough to organize this years pilgrimage to the Flow, and we followed a similar pattern to previous year, sharing a minibus to collect all and drive up the length of GB to cross at the Scrabster Ferry. We stayed at the the Millars House in Stromness, which is reputed to be the oldest known habitable dwelling there, and served award winning breakfasts to start of the day. |
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Diveboat Triton We used Triton as our dive Boat, skippered by Roy Seamer which we had used before on previous occasions. The boat was a converted fishing boat, the holds converted into bunkrooms, wet gear room and warm dry changing area. A day cabin was also available for us with a kitchen for brews, and also contained an assortment of dive guidebooks. Roy filled both air and nitrox on request and provided cylinder hire if required. The majority of dive sites were within 40 minutes of Stromness, and the day would often involve a lunch stop at Lyness to visit the museum there, and dive a nearby site in the afternoon. The museum also doubled as a bookshop and lunch café stop, where you could meet competing enemy divers for the afternoons sites.
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Battleships and Cruisers The Koln and the Brummer were light cruisers and each lay deeper at 36m. Both lay side on, and offered good opportunities for wreck penetration, requiring a bit more planning and technique due to the greater depth. Still a great deal to be seen on these wrecks, wreck tours can still be found on the Divernet website. The Crown Prince was one of the 3 remaining battleships still in the flow, and the most accessible one. It lies at a depth of 36-38m, and is a colossal size. Due to the weight of its armour and guns, when it sunk, it turned turtle, and landed on the bottom upside down. Thus when you descend the first thing you seem coming out of the gloom is the bottom of the ships hull at 20m. It is possible to descend down the side of the hull to the bottom and work your way underneath to see the 12in and 6in guns, which are awesome to behold. Due to its sheer size, many choices can be made as to the type of dive to undertake, although it lends itself particularly well to technical diving possibilities, with many inner areas to explore, although they require great care.! |
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When Admiral Reuter scuppered
the German Fleet in 1919, there were over 50 warships sunk in Scapa
Flow. Over the succeeding years, the majority of these were broken
up and salvaged, now only 9 of the original fleet remain. Added to
this are the many blockships that can be dived, the James Barrie (a
trawler wreck) and other less visited sites including the Bayern turrets
and deserted reef dives for those who love an interesting mollusc or
two. Due to the shelter of the surrounding islands diving conditions
are consistently good, although the sky is more often a grayish colour
than blue! All these factors add up to contribute to the compelling
draw of Scapa flow, there is always another dive that needs to be done
there, and once visited and dived once, it is difficult to resist the
thrill of another trip!
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Right:- a 6in gun salvaged from the Bremse, outside the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre on Lyoness. Left and above:- Marine life seen in the clear viz on the blockships. |
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