Deep Wrecks In Scapa - The Highlights So Far

[GLOC]

The week is over

The day started with another calm day looking out into the Flow. Due to the fact that the breather boys needed to catch the early ferry back, we had a choice, two 45 minute dives or one 90 minute dive. Pretty much the unanimous decision was a single dive of 90 mins on the Dresden as we hadn’t done that one yet.

Grant was feeling a little tired from a cr*p night’s sleep so decided that he was going to sit this day out and proceeded to pack his car ready for the race to the ferry when we docked later in the day. Everyone else fettled and made sure that things were working properly. Shame that Gavin’s checks on his VR3 didn’t include submerging it to find out if it worked – more of that later!

After a very leisurely push-off at 11:00 we arrived at the Dresden around midday. Seas were calm and we jumped in pretty much in one wave. Viz was around 10m going down the shot and the wreck was light. Gavin had an issue at 3m where his VR3 gave up the ghost and he sacked the dive. This was the third failure he had had in 3 days; 2 x cell errors on the Inspo including one bailout and his VR3 dying on him. He had been christened ‘Sarah’ when he first got onboard due to this annoying alarm clock waking everyone up on the first morning with Thin Lizzies ‘Sarah’; ‘Jonah’ is his new name! Well done to both Gavin and Roddy for passing their Mod 2 with Barry despite Roddy having a hole in his left ear for the final 2 dives!


Andy and Ian above the first gun aft of the shot

The shot we went down is stern-mid ships with a couple of large gun turrets right next to the tie-off point. We moved aft and found the kedge anchor sitting on the stern. We noticed a HID pointing from inside the wreck out and saw Paul’s face peering from within!


The kedge anchor

Moving forward we followed a swim-through the first deck until we reached an area where I might have made it through in twins but considering the unstable state of these wrecks, I signalled to Andy to turn around and exit through a wider hole about 10ft earlier. Having been on the Brummer earlier in the week where I created a small ‘landslide’ of metal whilst unhooking the light-cord from around a metal beam, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour in this case. Those who penetrate these wrecks should be under no illusion as to the unstable condition these warships are in. Barry has recounted being inside one the wrecks and pulling an internal door, for it come completely off the hinges and land literally inches from his feet. Be careful in there.


Andy at the main mast

We stopped off at the battle bridge and look-out mast for a little photo session and then carried on towards the bow. We were obviously following someone who had a penchant for kicking up the silt as we could see a 3ft thick layer of silt all the way forwards. Fortunately the current on the bow was still running a little which meant the bow section was clear of crud and we got probably in the region of 10-12m viz.


Andy next to the bow

We moved up over the top to see the name-ship shield on the starboard bow hull before swimming towards the stern again. We saw Wayne and Ian in and out of the wreck on the way back and with the light levels lifting, this provided some nice photo opportunities.


Ian looking into the wreck mid-ships

We had worked backwards for a max time of 15mins at 6m to cater for Andy’s boredom threshold so before too long we started the ascent. Nothing too eventful, deco worked out fine (again, before you naysayers get in there ) This was Andy’s longest dive to date at 75mins.


Andy mid-ships

Everyone was back on board fairly quickly and we started the motor back to Stromness for the final time.

We all really enjoyed the dives, the banter and the weather. The only way the weather could have been better was if the swell on the Wednesday hadn’t been around and we could have got 2 dives on the Remus or one on the Remus and one on the ‘other’ wreck which Hazel and Kevin want to identify.

Roddy, Gavin, Grant, Ian, Wayne, Ash and Dave all made a bee-line for the ferry as soon as we had docked and packed up. I thought I had a novel dive-mobile when I used to drive my Smart car, however, Roddy gets the prize for the most unusual dive-mobile when he managed to get 2 x Inspos, 2 x stages and dive kit for 2 people into his Aston Martin Vanquish for the drive down to Montrose! It’s a good job that he had low-profiles otherwise the tyres would be dragging around the wheel arches!

Paul is back up here in 4 weeks time for the Northern Isles trip at the back end of June and I know he is keen to be back. I have just signed up for the Faroes expedition July 2009 where Hazel has many undived wrecks for the picking including a Russian freezer trawler which sank in August 2007 which lies intact at 70m

Hazel, ably assisted by Helen, runs an excellent boat. The food is spot on and in large quantities (God knows where Wayne managed to put it all, even Helen was surprised how much he could demolish in one sitting). She is very safety conscious and errs on the side of discretion; getting off the boat is easy, doing lots of deco and getting back on in a rough sea is a very different matter. The bunks are comfortable with plenty of room to stretch out and relax in the saloon and galley. There are a few things which need to be sorted (like small shelves for the top bunks) but these are cosmetic rather than fundamental. The kitting up space is a little limited for 12 technical divers but is manageable and not unsafe, especially when you have an able deck-bitch like Helen. Even those diving multiple stages and scooters won’t have a problem getting on and off the boat with the door and lift as they are. They also have the capability to clip kit off on gear lines if need be. Hazel has plans to move into the exploration/expedition market and the Valkyrie is ideal for this; she is stable and has a very powerful engine for those long sea passages.

Hazel & Helen, thanks for a brilliant week, I think everyone really enjoyed themselves and we will be back.

[copperband]

Thanks for sharing yours and the rest of the guys experiences during the week, it's been an entertaining read.

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by copperband

Thanks for sharing yours and the rest of the guys experiences during the week, it's been an entertaining read.

Yep... ditto. i have enjoyed reading about what you lot have been up to, thank you.

It will be my turn in 3 weeks - I was excited about going before, now I really can't wait

[Sixsquid]

Originally Posted by copperband

Thanks for sharing yours and the rest of the guys experiences during the week, it's been an entertaining read.

Seconded. It's been great reading this report as the days went by and I'm in no doubt writing it up will have kept you out of lots of trouble

Thanks Gloc the many membered

[neilh]

Nice finale, thanks for sharing the reports and pictures!

[Hickdive]

Well, that's my deco amusement taken care of.

Cheers!

Roll on midsummer's day.

[Dr T]

yep.

thanks to H & H and all the other guys for a cracking week.

1250 long long miles
£180 diesel
790 minutes diving over 9 great dives
£23 gas bill
and the 'Dipsh!ts' were first on the Remus

ash

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by Dr T

yep.

thanks to H & H and all the other guys for a cracking week.

1250 long long miles
£180 diesel
790 minutes diving over 9 great dives
£23 gas bill
and the 'Dipsh!ts' were first on the Remus

ash

Blimey... were you there? we didn't hear a peep out of you all week

And those things we discussed at NDAC.... did any of them happen, or was it jsut hot air?

[Deep Baloo]

If I did not have students with me, I would have been 10 minutes on the bottom before you and lobster boy turned up AND probably have got a decent bit of viz

[G man]

Id like to also thank Helen and Hazel for a cracking week, see I told you the left hand would be ok I can type with it now, still hurts a bit though.

9 hours and 45 from the Ferry at Scrabster to Church Village, not a drive I'd like to repeat soon, but thanks to Dr T and DaveBooo for entertaning texts on the way back.

Cheers To Nick for the loan of the high speed roof box,

Two near misses with the cops on the way there, one on the way back.

Great fun and banter for the week.

Things I learnt from the trip,

1. Gloc has unfeasibly small hands, i discovered this by holding his dry glove and it was half as small as my hand.

2. If you have a CO2 cartridge gas blob make sure the trugger string is tucked inside, I cought mine when kitting up in the slats on the bench and it fired the blob, followed by the howls of laughter from the others.

3. If you use Derilin thumb wheels on your rig make sure that all of the threads are used as I ripped the middle out of one, leaving my rig attatched by only one nut when about to giant stride 4 feet to the water.

4. I cant take pictures, or model for them with a beer bottle.

5. and GLOC'S £300.00 gas bill FFS!!! get helium analiser and a whip mate, perhaps a VR3.

6. Deep Baloo can get into some small spaces for a big bloke.

Cheers Mates till next time.