SCAPA FLOW CHALLENGE

31ST MAY 2008 – 6TH JUNE 2008 – A COMMENTARY ON THE SAGA DIVING HOLIDAY

 

Photograph by Rowland – the almost DIR Diver – but a Dive Rite Wing

On the Coln II the most prestigious location for a Dive Crew banner ever?

Well a year in the planning but only a few days in execution.  The Scapa Flow Challenge has come and gone so I thought I might put pen to paper, or rather finger to keyboard to reflect my views of our week diving in Scapa Flow.

Why Saga? – Well James commented it would have been nice to have some younger company – he regretted the joke, the impudent young pup and the issue was the subject of much hilarity.  Jim throughout the week was the consummate diving buddy and the team had a great time diving and enjoying ourselves. I think we won a lot of friends.

We had hoped to fill the motor vessel Invincible out of Stromness in the Orkney isles with twelve Dive Crew members as it was only six of us signed up and unfortunately Andy Collins had to drop out at the last minute with an illness that meant he was unable to dive.  Despite this set back the five remaining members, James Doel, Rowland O’Connor, Lisa Miles, Penny Wilson and me made the journey north with the intention of diving the remains of the scuttled German 1^st World War High Sea Fleet that lies on the bottom of Scapa Flow.  I have no intention of going over the history of the fleet, its subsequent scuttling after the Armistice or the major salvage operation over a number of decades that removed most of the capital ships, cruisers and destroyers and damaged most of the others to varying degrees.

It is 698 miles from James’ parents’ home to Scrabster in the north of Scotland where you embark on the ferry to Stromness.  Penny, Rowland and Lisa did the journey in one hop to Inverness– James and I stopped at Capernwray on the way for a couple of dives – impressed or what – 15 to 20 metres visibility and huge ‘killer’ trout – wish it was nearer!  We all met up again in Inverness at the Loch Ness House Hotel where we met up with a great mate of mine from my early days in the police who I had not seen for nearly 25 years – more whisky I think.  We completed the last 113 miles on the morning of 31^st to catch the mid day ferry.  The sea was like a mill pond and that carried on throughout most of the challenge with the occasional bit of chop and rain.

Home for the week was the motor vessel Invincible, a converted fishing boat that now acts as a liveaboard.  The boat is owned and operated by Ian Trumpness and his wife Fiona (see www.scapa-flow.co.uk), the boat is larger than the average dive boat and has both a bar and a dining area.  The boat sleeps twelve in two bedded bunks rooms.  You have to take your own sleeping bag and space is at a premium.  The bar is somewhere nice to retreat to after the day’s diving and finish off logs, watch television, DVDs etc.  Ian and Fiona run a great operation and made us feel welcome from the moment we arrived until we departed. Fiona’s breakfasts are to die for and there is always a nice cup of piping hot chocolate when you come out of the water.

The diving

The diving was AWESOME and I could happily go back tomorrow and dive those sites again, again and again.

For James and me this was a big challenge, we only started diving with twins last winter and moved on to our decompression procedures and advanced Nitrox courses in January.  We were fortunate to have Rowland O’Connor diving with us with all his deep and technical diving knowledge.  He gave us advice and support freely and James and I learned a tremendous amount.  Scapa is widely advertised as being somewhere divers of any standard can dive – I think that is a misrepresentation of reality.  There are some of the ‘blockships’ that are suitable for advanced divers but when you talk about Scapa most people talk about the wrecks of the High Seas Fleet.  Rowland, Penny, Lisa, James and me are all of the opinion that there should be some minimum requirements placed on those who intend to dive the wrecks of these warships – Why?

Well most are close to or beyond the range of PADI Deep Divers, they are dark and intimidating wrecks and James commented they are both scary and spooky just by virtue of their huge bulk and the darkness that pervades them.  That being said they are excellent dives but you really need to know what you are doing.  You can dive them on singles but to get any benefit you need to be trained in decompression diving.  On or boat there was a Dutchman Tom,  who is vastly experienced instructor and underwater photographer who has very low air consumption and is trained to decompression dive, Tom dived on a single 15 litre. On one wreck James and I had a decompression liability of 35 minutes with 11 of those being at 3 metres – so your buoyancy needs to be spot on or you are going to the decompression chamber situated on the hill above Stromness.  In reality though to get even a half decent look at each ship you need twins and you need to be decompression trained.  In open water, having bagged off your SMB from near to the bottom hanging at the decompression stops from 6 metres upwards is a challenge.

Accidents happen, wet suit floods, swivel valves going on SPGs, mask straps failing in the darkness of the Cruiser Dresden; a diver on another boat died when we were in Scapa, undoubtedly we will hear the outcome of the Inquest in due course. My dry suit flooded on the way down to the James Barrie – oh hum.

We took part in a study for DAN that shows divers in cold water are significantly more likely to suffer DCS than divers in warm water – the dry suit element – rapid ascents through not managing the release air quickly enough from the suit’ or the cold water effecting the dissolving of Nitrogen bubbles – we await the results.

We saw some appalling diving, we also saw some excellent diving, people solo diving the wrecks on single cylinders, the ‘all the kit’ but ‘none of the diving’ brigade – some Irish guys with rebreathers joined us during the week and we thought they were auditioning for a underwater River Dance the way they kicked up the silt – ‘Has Britain Got Talent’ – possibly an underwater version!  We saw one guy, we guess not deco trained, rush from the bottom on the Coln II to do his 19 minutes of deco he had incurred at 3 metres – really a bend provoking course of action.  UWATEC computers set in normal mode for recreational divers only allow for deco at 3 metres – NUTS.  Diving in buddy pairs is fine, but after the week I am committed to deco diving as a team, it is safer, there are more people to help if one of the team gets into difficulties and you all look after each other.  You all are involved in the plan and just as importantly diving the plan.

With all our deco we saw just a tiny part of these huge capital ships, for instance I could have spent my full 30 minutes at 30 metres plus just looking at the mast of the Coln, let alone the guns.  So for me twin sets and next time a rich mix of Nitrox for deco stops to make the process quicker and or give us more bottom time.

With a number of cases now being settled against BSAC clubs we think that it is reasonable for a club organising a trip to insist on a minimum of Rescue Diver, because you have to be able to self rescue as Penny did when her mask strap broke moments after she had just signalled ok to me with her torch, in a few seconds we were out of sight and Penny had to rely on her own skills. Deep is obviously a requirement as is Wreck but I wouldn’t recommended penetration other than for the most experienced of divers.  I think you should be satisfied that divers have recent UK sea diving experience and that you (the trip leader) has seem them demonstrate that ability.  Launching a SMB is also a pre requisite and coming out of the Tarbaka into a current of up to 8 knots requires your SMB skills to be of the highest order.

You could take a mixed group with those qualified doing the German wrecks and the others doing the block ships which are less deep and often sheltered. They could also have a dive over the top of some of the wrecks which start at about 16 metres.  So there is something for everyone with caveats.

Dive Planning

A prerequisite for individuals, buddies and groups even if you are not deco diving.  This is one area where I have learned so much from Paul Toomer and on the Challenge, Rowland.  Might look like geeks playing with tables and computers, writing out slates and having a rather strange system of underwater communication.  Paul insisted on our Deco Course that we must hit our jumps and hangs on the dot each time and surface at exactly the time we had identified in our plan.  When I was diving I kept hearing his words in my ears and when we were fighting to keep our three metre hang with choppy seas above us I kept seeing Paul beaming at us – as the downloaded profile from our computers shows only minimal movement and I mean minimal – a couple of inches at the most. I am so grateful for all the extra support Rowland gave us, I think Jim and I matured enormously as divers on the trip and a lot of that was to do with Rowland.

Shock and Awe

For me the wrecks are just fascinating but I completely accept that they are spooky and when you first go down the line and are confronted with this black hulk you wonder where to begin and it feels dark and lonely.  There is lots of marine life on the wrecks and although murky a photographers paradise.

Kit

You need the best – although I was criticized by a member of the DIR/GUE Thought Police for having a twin bladder Dive Rite Classic Wing on a Halcyon back plate and harness.  Do I give a stuff?  No fear the kit I wear works for me and I can manage my buoyancy with it precisely.

Six days of diving

We were joined on the boat by Tom who I have previously mentioned, Kexy an air hostess!!  Plus day divers most of whom were very experienced and part of the Stromness diving business.  There was plenty of variety and we went to some shallower wrecks as well as the deep German wrecks.  My favourites were the Cruisers Brummer and Coln II which we visited twice each but saw so pitifully little of.

Will I go back – YES and probably do fully techie diving – but more practice before that.

Homeward bound

Left the ferry 1t 10.15am and got home 9.45pm, for 700 miles not bad.

Fundraising

Well we have raised a paltry sum given the exposure this Challenge has received in the Dive Press and across the Criminal Justice system.  There was no buy in from corporate or the dive industry.  But James and I will carry on fund raising for Teenage Cancer Trust but he was wondering if I will have the dive to the age of 85 to raise the target amount.

How do I feel?

Great, I am proud of the whole team but I am very proud of myself, not something you often hear me say about my diving, – it seems only weeks ago I started diving and with Jim’s and everyone else’s help I dived Scapa and dived it well something not many divers do.  I am too polite to hold two fingers up to those who negatively criticized my diving in my early days – one finger will do – a thought that ran through my mind as Jim and I held that 11 minute hover in open sea, on a SMB at 3 metres – and to those of you who got me there BIG HUGS.

Thanks to all but especially:

Rowland (now Guru Narnach Rowland), Lisa, Penny, Andy, James, Collin and Paul Toomer (now Guru Narnach Paul); Mark Evans at Sport Diver, all at PADI, the team at Teenage Cancer Trust and Marc Woods.

To close

If the reef systems of the world are the rain forests of the seas then the wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet are the underwater, but rapidly deteriorating Pyramids.  Dive it guys before it is too late.

Richard Cullen