Hackney Diving

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Scapa Flow - July 2003

In the last week of July, 8 members of the club spent a week diving in Scapa Flow.

Getting there

In previous years, mini busses have been hired, piled high with diving gear and driven to the very top of Scotland where a short ferry ride takes you straight to Stromness.  This year we decided to fly to from Luton to Aberdeen, take the ferry to Kirkwall and minibus to Stromness where we were to be staying and catching the dive boat each day. 

Stromness

Stromness is the main town in Orkney and very pleasant it is too.  We were there during the festival week so it was also quite lively - which in my case was a bit of a problem, because my bedroom was above the bar of the hotel we were staying in and the locals insisted on partying and dancing until the early hours!

Stromness has two dive shops, so not to worry should you forget some vital piece of diving gear whilst packing.  There also seem to be many good quality charter boats available for diving trips, including live-aboards and ones that take advanced diving courses.

The boat

We had chosen a boat called the Triton, which is a well equipped boat (58ft long, cabin, changing and drying rooms and even bunks for live-aboard so I am told) with its own compressor capable of providing both air and nitrox.  It was skippered by Andy who was friendly and and easy going.

Diving Scapa

There are two main types of diving in Scapa; the deep wrecks of the 1st world war and the shallow 'block' ships in the sounds.

We started the day with one of the shallower dives to the German boat wrecks - the Karlsruhe, which lies on its starboard side in 24-27 metres of water (the rest of the ships are at about 26-38 meters).  The visibility was quite good at at least 10 metres.  This was my first time diving at Scapa and wasn't dissapointed by what I saw.

These ships seems huge when you are down there, looming out of the eerie darkness.  They are also in quite good condition considering their age.  This is due to the relatively sheltered nature of Scapa Flow, which is protected from the storms and currents of the sea by the surrounding islands that make up Orkney.

Swimming around the stern of the Karlsruhe I got very excited when I saw a beautiful, large jelly fish floating toward the wreck. I turned and swam back to take a closer look, but at 10ft from it I realised that its stinging tendrils were being washed over me and my back peddling wasn't enough to prevent the tendrils from being drawn around my DV and across my lips!  I spent the rest of the day looking like Mick Jagger.

Each morning we dived a deep wreck from the German fleet and each afternoon we would dive one of the 'block' ships.  These were sunk in the sounds forming the entrance to Scapa Flow in order to prevent the  German Submarines from entering and torpedoing the British fleet that was stationed in Scapa during the war.

The 'block' ships are at a depth of between 14-18 meters.  There is quite a current here as the water rushes in and out of Scapa Flow, so you have to be quick at slack tide to get to the shot line before being swept away by the current.

Once on the ship there is an amazing amount of wildlife to see and because of the currents the water is very clear with visibility at 20 meters or more.  The ships are teeming with wildlife and due to their depth and visibility, have a much more relaxing feel than the deep morning dives.

Talking of wildlife, we also saw lots of dolphins:

and for those of you with broadband, here are some videos of the Dolphins (requires QuickTime/RealPlayer):

Dolphins on the prow

Watch for the baby at the end

Orkney Sites

Apart from the diving there is much else to see in Orkney.  During both world wars it was the home of a large number of British troops and we spent much of our time between dives checking out the war museum on Hoy.

On our rest day most of us hired bicycles and cycled round Orkney's main island to visit some of the fantastic Neolithic sites including burial mounds (Maeshowe), standing stones (Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar) and stone age village (Skara Brae).

Rounding it off

All in all we had a fantastic time and I would definitely go again.

Pros:

Cons:

For more diving pictures, see out Gallery.