Good dives Ones that were much better than you thought!

jon_e · Newbie Joined: Jun 11, 2008 Posts: 14

June 1993 - Scapa Flow...

Woke in the morning in our house by the Churchill Barrier between Burray & S Ronaldsay to see the sea thrashing the blockships that were at that time visible and underwater at high tide (Those on the trip in Sept... look where they are now... IF you can see them!) Force 8 Easterly blowing.. no chance of a dive...

Got on the boat as usual and chugged off.. the main wreck sites werent diveable, so went round Burray and kept tight under Hunda, and across into Kirk Sound, right under St Mary's. Kitted up and were told that there was a badly broken blockship there - name unknown - by a deep channel close into the blocks of the Churchill Barrier.

The water was completely calm.. except for the splashes of the massive waves beating just across the road on the other side of the Barrier, and the spray was raining down onto the calm water where we were to dive.

As you can imagine.. with no tidal flow it was a bit silty, and 12 divers fairly close together soon made the blockship a no go area, and most were done within 15 mins or so..

I headed away from the wreck into some clearer water, and came across a big heap of rubbish.. and started rooting about in it.. and treasure started to emerge... A set of Brass fire irons.. candlesticks, china, and all manner of other domestic effects...

being me.. had to gather as much as I could and lug it back to the surface (only about 10m anyway) but chucked all this assorted crap onto the deck, having had the most fantastic rummage through this heap of junk for about 40 mins.

Its hard to describe the delight with which I turfed through that c***... but it was one of the most enjoyable half hours I spent underwater... little things please little minds!!!

Among it all was one of my favourite diving souvenirs.. a china lavatory chain handle!

Then it was a massively long steam of all of 100 yards to the Commodore Club at St Mary's for lunch, before we made a run for Lyness and a second drift dive through Gutter Sound over the old entrance to the Naval Base... another fantastic area (now probably picked pretty clean) for interesting finds of rubbish, and where on my previous trip I retrieved a stone jar ( a 'pig' in Orkadian) in perfect condition - another of my favourite diving souvenirs.

Come on.. add yours...
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Heaven is a lobster in the bag.... Ecstasy is a leak in someone else's drysuit....