lakesdiver
Contributor
Scapa flow trip 7/4/02 - 7/14/02
Weather: only rained pm Sat and am Mon (with big winds and 3m seas. What a ride!). Highs low 60s/lows high 40s to low 50s. Sunny with light to mod breezes most of week with flat seas. Heard it stated that it was uncommon weather.
Water: low 50s. Viz.: 20 40 feet. Lots of particulates, so photo is hard, due to backscatter. I have only one small strobe, so shot b/w 1600asa w/20mm lens in existing light.
What we dove:
Battleship:
Kronprinz Wilhelm Need many dives to get a feel for it. One dive only gives you a sense of its size. Mostly just a huge hull, unless you penetrate.
Light Cruisers:
Dresden light cruiser 5.9 gun on the bow. Bridge, control tower, guns, etc. all intact.
Brummer light cruiser best of the lot for me. Wonderfully intact. Bridge, control tower, guns.
Koln light cruiser Shot line on upper aft 5.9 gun. saw both aft 5.9 guns. 5.9 gun port midships gun. Huge hole just forward of upper aft gun, so long swim to intact forward section. Be sure you have a DSMB, so boat knows where to find you.
Karlsruhe light cruiser pretty trashed 5.9 gun on bow.
F2 & barge McDonalds book not up to date. F2 is trashed from just behind the bow deck gun.
Barge very open for penetration and shouldnt be missed. Lots of stuff to see. Work Bench, AA gun (stands atop another gun), lockers, etc.
Battleships are very impressive, but I think the light cruisers are the better dives, since they are all on their sides, rather than upside down. Thus you can do all kinds of penetration.
Lots of marine life. Conger eels, and ling cod much in evidence. Marine life growing on all the wrecks, but not so extensive that you cant recognize what youre looking at.
Pan Hope bay. Divers hunker down in kelp @ 12 feet and wait for visits by the local seal population. Seals swam past at regular intervals, but (in our case) didnt venture too closely.
Stayed @ Ferry Inn, Stromness. Annex. Small 3 bedroom house. One double, two singles. LR, Kitchen, one bath. Breakfast @ Inn. 18 £ p/p p/n -- to stay in Inn itself is 25 £ p/p p/n, but Im told its noisy and frequently smoky.
Dove w/Scapa Charters. 50 Stormdrift (Day boat) - Never more than 6 divers (plus DM). Sub captain Dave. Lots of entertaining stories. DM friendly enough, but sparse w/info (because we werent paying for a guided tour?), but Rod McDonalds book a great help. Get it, read it through, take it along. They have steel 12 & 15 liter tanks. I used a 15 liter and needed to add no more weight to compensate for sea water. Nitrox is also available. You set your gear up on a tank and it stays there the week. Boat has two dry areas. One in bow and a saloon behind the wheelhouse, that has a stove with lots of tea & (instant) coffee. Boat usually sails around 09:00 and returns by 16:30-17:00.
Scapa Charters. (Owners Sara & Ben) Ben does overnight drysuit repairs (w/in reason). One guy on our boat had two pockets put on his suit Sunday night, and he dove with the suit the next day, no problems. He also makes drysuits (neoprene).
Saw museum at Lyness worth a couple of walk-abouts. Good stop for lunch. Great hot soups. Sandwiches ok.
Stromness cute, old town of 1,500 people. Lots of shopping. Working wharves. A few restaurants. Couple of small stores, butchers, and one big store, for those who want to self-cater. Many dive operations, mostly live-aboard. 3 Day boats. We took day boat option so we could sightsee, too. One store does deli-type sandwiches for the day-boat crowd. Ferry Inn prepped box lunches for us, on request.
Dont miss trying Orkney Brewing products. Skullsplitter (@ 8.5% abv) is my favorite, followed by Dark Island, but there are 5 others that are also very good.
The Highland Park distillery has a tour that takes about an hour and finishes with a wee dram of their 12 year old. (I think the 18 year old is better.)
There are many interesting archeological sites about the island and the tourist bureau can set you up with a tour appropriate to your wishes.
Dive Cellar (4 Victoria Street) has t-shirts, polos, etc. Custom overnight embroidery available. They also have a TON of the kinds of little accessories that break, get lost, wear out, etc. at reasonable prices.
John Kemp (in the town of Kirkwall) does t-shirts, polos, hats, etc. He also does overnight custom embroidery. We had him do sweatshirts with a standard logo and custom embroidery. I ordered by e-mail and the sweatshirts were delivered and waiting for us when we arrived, via the dive operation.
This was a vacation that exceeded my expectations (havent said that too often!). Were talking of a return trip already.
Weather: only rained pm Sat and am Mon (with big winds and 3m seas. What a ride!). Highs low 60s/lows high 40s to low 50s. Sunny with light to mod breezes most of week with flat seas. Heard it stated that it was uncommon weather.
Water: low 50s. Viz.: 20 40 feet. Lots of particulates, so photo is hard, due to backscatter. I have only one small strobe, so shot b/w 1600asa w/20mm lens in existing light.
What we dove:
Battleship:
Kronprinz Wilhelm Need many dives to get a feel for it. One dive only gives you a sense of its size. Mostly just a huge hull, unless you penetrate.
Light Cruisers:
Dresden light cruiser 5.9 gun on the bow. Bridge, control tower, guns, etc. all intact.
Brummer light cruiser best of the lot for me. Wonderfully intact. Bridge, control tower, guns.
Koln light cruiser Shot line on upper aft 5.9 gun. saw both aft 5.9 guns. 5.9 gun port midships gun. Huge hole just forward of upper aft gun, so long swim to intact forward section. Be sure you have a DSMB, so boat knows where to find you.
Karlsruhe light cruiser pretty trashed 5.9 gun on bow.
F2 & barge McDonalds book not up to date. F2 is trashed from just behind the bow deck gun.
Barge very open for penetration and shouldnt be missed. Lots of stuff to see. Work Bench, AA gun (stands atop another gun), lockers, etc.
Battleships are very impressive, but I think the light cruisers are the better dives, since they are all on their sides, rather than upside down. Thus you can do all kinds of penetration.
Lots of marine life. Conger eels, and ling cod much in evidence. Marine life growing on all the wrecks, but not so extensive that you cant recognize what youre looking at.
Pan Hope bay. Divers hunker down in kelp @ 12 feet and wait for visits by the local seal population. Seals swam past at regular intervals, but (in our case) didnt venture too closely.
Stayed @ Ferry Inn, Stromness. Annex. Small 3 bedroom house. One double, two singles. LR, Kitchen, one bath. Breakfast @ Inn. 18 £ p/p p/n -- to stay in Inn itself is 25 £ p/p p/n, but Im told its noisy and frequently smoky.
Dove w/Scapa Charters. 50 Stormdrift (Day boat) - Never more than 6 divers (plus DM). Sub captain Dave. Lots of entertaining stories. DM friendly enough, but sparse w/info (because we werent paying for a guided tour?), but Rod McDonalds book a great help. Get it, read it through, take it along. They have steel 12 & 15 liter tanks. I used a 15 liter and needed to add no more weight to compensate for sea water. Nitrox is also available. You set your gear up on a tank and it stays there the week. Boat has two dry areas. One in bow and a saloon behind the wheelhouse, that has a stove with lots of tea & (instant) coffee. Boat usually sails around 09:00 and returns by 16:30-17:00.
Scapa Charters. (Owners Sara & Ben) Ben does overnight drysuit repairs (w/in reason). One guy on our boat had two pockets put on his suit Sunday night, and he dove with the suit the next day, no problems. He also makes drysuits (neoprene).
Saw museum at Lyness worth a couple of walk-abouts. Good stop for lunch. Great hot soups. Sandwiches ok.
Stromness cute, old town of 1,500 people. Lots of shopping. Working wharves. A few restaurants. Couple of small stores, butchers, and one big store, for those who want to self-cater. Many dive operations, mostly live-aboard. 3 Day boats. We took day boat option so we could sightsee, too. One store does deli-type sandwiches for the day-boat crowd. Ferry Inn prepped box lunches for us, on request.
Dont miss trying Orkney Brewing products. Skullsplitter (@ 8.5% abv) is my favorite, followed by Dark Island, but there are 5 others that are also very good.
The Highland Park distillery has a tour that takes about an hour and finishes with a wee dram of their 12 year old. (I think the 18 year old is better.)
There are many interesting archeological sites about the island and the tourist bureau can set you up with a tour appropriate to your wishes.
Dive Cellar (4 Victoria Street) has t-shirts, polos, etc. Custom overnight embroidery available. They also have a TON of the kinds of little accessories that break, get lost, wear out, etc. at reasonable prices.
John Kemp (in the town of Kirkwall) does t-shirts, polos, hats, etc. He also does overnight custom embroidery. We had him do sweatshirts with a standard logo and custom embroidery. I ordered by e-mail and the sweatshirts were delivered and waiting for us when we arrived, via the dive operation.
This was a vacation that exceeded my expectations (havent said that too often!). Were talking of a return trip already.
