Dive 1: Karlsruhe
Depth 25M Time 45min Viz. 7-10m
On the boat 0830, Usual morning stuff on the boat. Start to set up your kit, you are now facing the big dilemma of the week! The scuttled WWI German fleet consists of seven wrecks. Three 25.000 battleships and four 5000ton destroyers. All lie between 24m and 42m.  So they are pretty much first dives, and as you are on a six day charter, if you want to do all of the big seven you are a big stuck! So we're on our first dive. Robert called me to the bridge and asked us what we'd like to do. Although we had lots on info on all the wrecks, I suggested the Karlsruhe.
The Karlsruhe is a 5000ton destroyer, and is the shallowest of the seven wrecks at a maximum of 28m's and is a good shakedown dive to start the week.  The dive was excellent. 10m viz. Some fish life including wrasse and a ling.

Dive 2: Gobernador Borries
Max Depth 18m Time 32min Viz. 15M+
Into Burra Sound for our second dive of the week. Robert instructed us to be ready to dive at 1515 to get optimum slack. This was essential as a tidal current of up to eight knots runs through the sound. Get it wrong and its Iceland next stop! Some of our group had difficulty reaching the shot after they jumped in due to the still running current
Going down the shot was a horizontal hard pull, but once down on the wreck you were quite sheltered. The Gobernador Borries is one of the collections of block ships that litter the entrance to Burra Sound. The most famous of which is probably the Inverlane as its hull rises proud on the surface. With the strong tidal current, all the sand and silt is washed away daily leaving a stony bottom and quite brilliant viz.! We had read other dive reports of 25-30m viz., so when we got down we were a wee bit disappointed at the 15m+ viz. There's no pleasing us! Plenty of swim throughs and bits of wreck to potter around in out of the still slightly running current. The highlight of this dive were the wrasse who followed you around for food.

Dive 3: Dresden
Max Depth 36m Time 39min Viz. 10M
After the excitement of the first days diving, everyone's spirits were up, the horrible journey had been forgotten and everyone was getting into the swing of things on the boat. I was really keen and was first down the shot. Spooky. With no other boats on site and all your crew behind you, it's an eerie felling as the wreck starts to appear out of the greyness as you descend towards it. The shot puts us on the bow. A few swim  throughsthrough the superstructure. As we swam over the wreck, the immense size if the wreck dwarfs you with the sheets of metal making it difficult to work out were you are on the wreck
All to soon our planned bottom time was running out and it was time to rise up the top of the wreck to about 20m. Rather than return to the shot we bagged off. First in, generally means first out, so my job to get the kettle on back on the boat. Made note to make sure I get back on last through the rest of the week.

Dive 4: Tabarka
Max Depth 17m Time 19min Viz. 6M
This was the dive everybody had been raving about so I was really looking forward to it.  Caroline and I were dropped directly onto the wreck and had to fin like mad to get into the lee of the wreck.  The current was awful, at least 2 knots.  We managed to regroup at the bottom and bumped into some more of our group.  Nobody seemed to know the way in so we went to the back and managed to get into the large hole at the stern. I was starting to breath for England and thought the current would stop as we got inside the wreck.  How wrong I was it must have been 1 1/2 knots of tide inside the wreck and it was swirling round like a washing machine.  I was not enjoying this at all and the video housing was getting a real battering.  We continued into the wreck and it did not improve so we 'called it' at the first large hole we came to.  Back on the boat Robert asked if we would like to be put back on it when the tide went slack.  I explained I thought he was having a 'tin bath'!  The second half of the group got through the wreck into the calm bit and really enjoyed it !

 Dive 5: F2
Max Depth 18m Time 51min Viz. 12M
Today was pouring with rain and we decided to try a couple of shallow dives and then go and find some seals to play with.
The F2 is an old British destroyer. Beside the wreck is an old barge that sank many years later. A rope tied between the two wrecks helps with navigation between the two.  The F2 is an excellent dive.  OK so after diving the Dresden this appears small and insignificant.   If we dived the F2 off Portland we'd be singing its praises.  Clive pointed out a huge conger under one of the plates by using an underwater sign language that normally only Jenni understands!  
We fired off the DSMB from the destroyer and went for lunch in Lyness museum.

Ah yes the seal spotting, well we saw one that took a quick look at Gio and disappeared!

Dive 6: F2 and Y2C Barge
Max Depth 17m Time 63min Viz. 8-10M
By popular demand, the Y2C barge and F2 again.  Bimbled back and forward between the two wrecks. Found a large lobster under the barge. More crabs and some congers peering out from various holes in the wrecks. A John Dory has been reported as living around the barge were the rope leads off to the F2. Did have a look but no sign of it I'm afraid.  But all in all, one of the best days diving I've ever had in Britain.


Dive 7: Brummer wreck
Max Depth 35m Time 45min Viz. 10-12M
As the boat pulled out of Stromness, a conflab started and a list was drawn up for the rest of the remaining dives. We had general agreement that wouldn't bother doing two of the remaining large battleships (Markgraf and Konig), but rather go for the three destroyers as they sat on their sides and provided more to see. Today's dive was the Brummer which was a special request from Clive.  He seemed to think it had something to do with a bald bloke in 'The King and I'.  At 4,300 tons, one of the smallest of the big seven. We landed off the shot at a 5.9inch gun turret behind the bridge structure. The book Dive Scapa Flow contains excellent artist's impressions of the big seven.  Be warned that there are quite a few inaccuracies in the drawings, which could confuse you underwater if used for navigation. On the Brummer this aft of bridge gun barrel is shown pointing forward which it isn't. Passing the bridge at 30m we passed the fire control turret with viewing slits then another gun turret with 6inch barrel facing towards the bow. We went as far as the bow, which unfortunately is starting to deteriorate. The 80 years under the water are taking their toll. As we came back up the line of the deck to 20m we looked down on the bow. What an immense dive. Voted the best dive of the week by all on our boat.

Dive 8: V83 Destroyer
Max Depth 14.4m Time 43min Viz. 6M
After lunch we headed for the V83 destroyer.  The Bow sits at 5m with the shot leading to the stern at 15m. She is badly broken up amidships.  A small gun points at 45degrees and the propshaft is visible. Visibility was poorer on this dive than the rest of the dives this week and my glove started leaking so we made it a short dive! Did come across some large congers hiding in various pipe and holes. Chris reported a conger free swimming through the wreck and a large gun pointing up at 45 degrees. More sea life on this wreck with a shoal of 20-30 wrasse around us.

Dive 9: Kronprinz Willhelm
Max Depth 38m Time 39min Viz. 8-10M
Day five on the boat now saw everyone well into their diving and comfortable with their respective buddies. So everyone was in agreement that we would do one of the big three. The Kronprinz was a 25,000 ton destroyer, some 200m's long. Like all of the big three, the weight of her armaments made her top heavy, so when she was scuttled she turned upside down in about 40m. The sheer weight forced most of the superstructure into the silt bottom of the flow to nearly deck level.  This means that other than for some of the side armaments that poke out at 40m, you are basically diving one huge hull. Fortunately, salvagers have blown large holes in the hull making the dives slightly more interesting. We descended down the shot as usual and hit the side of the hull at about 14m. It was then about another 20m descent until the bottom showed itself at about 40m. Diving with a 30 mix was useful! As we tucked into the deck area, remnants of the side guns were visible in the darkness. We were now at 38m and the wreck and sandy bottom met in the middle - we were under a 25,000-ton monster. Silt was stirred and we backed out from our den. The no deco time certainly flies on a dive like this and it was time to ascend slowly up the hull and find the shot line. The line was very very slack and as I pulled it it appeared to be an old shot line just rising off the wreck. So we bagged off from 25m.   We headed up for an 80% mix safety stop that we really needed, we could clearly see the surface ripple from about 15m's below

 Dive 10: Mara Wreck & Bottle drift dive
Max Depth 18m Time 54min Viz. 10M+
This was to be the only drift dive of the trip.  When we descended the shot we landed on the Mara. An old dive boat sitting in 16m that sank in Houton harbour due to neglect! There must be a long story about that. The current was about 1/2 a knot and we needed to hug the small wreck to keep out of the current. The  wreck has been pretty much striped of everything. Deployed the DSMB for surface cover and off we went on the 'bottle dive'. With Caroline armed with a goodie bag we fanned out on our hunt for the many bottles that litter the 18m sandy bottom. This proved quite a laugh as we picked up various shapes and colours of the remnants of past sailors' drinking sessions! After about 10 minutes the bag was starting to overflow so we had a quick sort out and threw half of it away. After about 50 minutes the bag and all our pockets were filled with our assortment of goodies we were both getting cold so we began our ascent. Back on the boat everyone was going through their goodies scraping off barnacles and sludge and wondering how old the bottles were. To be honest I think most of them were thrown in the year before and I did wonder as we chugged back to Stromness tossing the bottles back into the flow that we were recycling the dive for the next years adventurers. A few bottles were of interest and I kept a nice pre war Bovril jar.

Dive 11: The Scrapyard
Max Depth 18m Time 44min Viz. 8-10M
This was a dive that I sat out with Jenni.  I think it must have been a little too much Dark Isle last night I just did not fancy it so when Jenni said she didn't fancy it either I was quite pleased.  We busied ourselves making tea and sorting out gear ready for the unload at the end of the day.  I was then summonsed to the wheel house by Robert for a 'chat'.  The weather was starting to close in a little and although we could do another dive if we wanted it would need to be the same site as the winds were picking up.  When everybody got back on the boat I put it to a vote and everybody wanted to go sightseeing around Orkney instead. So back to Stromness for tea and medals and then off to find somewhere to eat.

Postscript:
As we chugged back to Stromness for the last time, we discussed arranging next years trip to the Red Sea, not a live-aboard but a 3 day cruise and 4 day beach.  My opinion of UK diving has been raised significantly.  I have wanted to go to Scapa for many years and it is one of those 'must do' dive sites.  Will I go back?  Yes I will, however I totally agree with Angela, maybe not for a few years to see how it has changed.