Coln, F2 & Barge, Scapa Flow August 2005 August 20, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentFriday 12th August 2005.
Dive 1 Coln Max Depth 35.1m Run time 44mins.
This was probably the least successful of Ian and mine dives together during the week. It didn’t start well when I hadn’t switched on my valves and then forgot to attach the wing inflator before I had kitted up. A bit of faffing and it was sorted then in we dropped. As we descended again on perfect slack, things started to feel better, I relaxed after being anxious about not getting things right before we went in. The bulk of the wreck on it’s starboard side came into view and I paused for a second to compose as this was to be last big boat of the week and took it all in. We dropped over the side of the ship and down along the bridge and attack conning tower and past the midships gun. We dropped underneath the tower and enjoyed a very nice swimthrough. At this point I noted another entry into a decent sized swimthrough which doubled back along the base of the control bridge and back around. I checked back to Ian and he was behind me so I went in, unfortunately he wasn’t looking at me when I went in and he carried on along the side towards the bow. When I came out of the other side of the tower I met up with 2 other divers from another boat and also Beanie and Lisa. I noticed at this point the Ian had not followed me through and so went back over the tower to find him. I continued along towards the bow as had been our plan but didn’t catch up with him. I then doubled back and quizzed Beanie, Lisa and then Blanaid and Juz as I passed them going back towards the bridge. After reaching the bridge and the midships gun I had still not found Ian so I started to ascend to the top of the wreck to send up my bag and start the ascent. On my way up the decking I noticed the stray rope from old shots, so I thought to myself, best stay away from that as it would be just peachy to get caught up as I am now on my tod. 
As the thought passed through my mind the rope caught underneath my stage. Oh well, untangled it from the rope and continued up. As I came up over the side railing I saw Ian who had just sent up his bag, so we met up and continued along the top of the wreck towards the stern section.
We saw the stern guns albeit from the upper section of the wreck. At 33minutes we began our ascent, having stayed within no deco limits. We made a slow and steady ascent pretty much adhering to our deco plan, switching to 50%.
Even though the dive didn’t exactly go to plan, it was still a really good one. The Coln was a beautiful wreck with large shoals of little sardine sized fish, (I am told they weren’t sardine but not sure what they are).
Gotta go back and do this one properly.
Dive 2 The F2 & Barge followed by a gentle pootle on the seabed looking for bottles and feisty crabs. Max Depth 18m, Run time, 71 min
Our last dive, can you believe it, if you have got this far in the dive report then you are thinking thank goodness, congratulations though on getting this far, you deserve a green blob. 
To claim you have to green me!! 
The plan for this one was drop onto the barge, have a mooch around this one, checking out the gun salvaged from F2 and then make our way over to F2 to have a look at the rest of it.
Juz sorting out our reminders for Week 2
Lisa in the barge.
So in we went, the barge was a little small for 12 divers to descend on at once, so Ian and I hung back and once everyone had moved onto the F2 had a look around on our own. We had a good luck inside, attempting to get into the back of the boat but it turned out to be a little tighter than we expected. Back onto the deck we exited over to the port side and made our way to the bow and then off to F2 stopping on the way to examine the winch mechanism that lay between the two wrecks.
We reached the carnage that is the rear of the F2 which had been blown apart by the salvage crews. We headed out along the stern section and then back along to the intact bow. We came up underneath the bow that was elevated from the surface and returned back to the main gun sat on the deck.
Here we went inside and made our way underneath the gun and turret and popped out behind the swivel turret of the gun. The oval window to get out was a little tight as we were carrying our stages to run em down. I hoicked the stage up and tucked the camera in and wriggled out.
Here we met up with Matt, Adam, Caroline & Lou
Caroline. 
Adam.
After spending 45 minutes on the wrecks we bagged off and drifted along the seabed hunting for more bottles and taking a couple of shots of the feisty crabs that we expected to find after the previous days bottle run when I didn’t have the camera with me.
We changed to our stages to drain them down and enjoy the beauties of 50%. At 65 minutes mine was getting low, OK in fact it had run out so I switched back to my main rig. I turned to Ian and dangled my stage reg in front of him giving him an appropriate signal to tell him I had finished it. At this point a sense of realisation came across his face as he noted that his was probably running low. At the point where he was going purple he managed to unclip his main reg and stuck in his mouth. I had swapped to my backup just in case I needed to donate, but found it hard not to giggle at his misfortune… frankly if he……………..
At this point we decided we had collected enough pictures and bottles and made our ascent, shame we didn’t pick up any scallops as the restaurant we had booked for the evening had run out for their starters!!!
And that was it, our dives were complete. I was no longer a Scapa Virgin.
Which was my favourite, probably Kronprinz Wilhelm or Billy 38 as it became known as. Just because of those guns… but I also really enjoyed Brummer and Doyle, and also Tabarka, F2, Karlsruhe…………………….
Then it was on to Friday night………
It truly was a great week of diving for me. Having only started diving 18 months ago and as you can see from some of the pics Lou has posted in this thread, learned a lot over a relatively short space of time, at that time I couldn’t have envisaged doing this trip and getting as much out of it as I did. I would like to thank all that were on the trip as it was a really really good group of people and every single person contributed to making it so. Ian (airassisted) you’re a star for getting this sorted. Thanks M8
One more piccy, MV Invincible, a really decent Scapa Liveaboard, skippered by the superb team of Ian and Fiona, I really can’t recommend them enough.
SMS Brummer, Scapa Flow August 2005 August 19, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , 1 comment so farThursday 11th August 2005
Dive 1 SMS Brummer Max Depth 33.4m Bottom Time 35 mins Run time 59mins
Today was the second of the three light cruisers. Skipper enjoyed keeping us in suspense until we got on site as to which of the cruisers we were doing but gave us the briefing we needed as we sat there kitted and ready to go. Shot is midships, above the bridge and the armoured conning tower and the midships gun. Keep the wreck on the left and you’ll head to the bow, on the right and you will head for the stern.
In we went and straight down. We were on perfect slack so the shot sat in the water vertical, we left the shot as it was covered in little pipe fish curled around it and free descended onto the wreck, over the side and directly onto the midships gun. 
From the gun we dropped towards the seabed met up with the two fellas in the picture
and moved ahead towards the bow, Ian found an entry at the base of the wreck into the bow section but I was having a particularly non wreck entry moment and couldn’t seem to get the angle to go in, so backed away and moved forward of the bow and entered along the broken section there. We carried on back then half way back to the midships gun through the broken hull of the wreck, finding a hatch just before the gun to exit the wreck and continue on past the bridge and the armoured conning tower,I went under whilst Ian went over.
We made our way to the stern where we came across the stern guns. One out in the open , the other tucked away under a fallen plate of armour. As the divernet wreck tour reports the stern is more broken up than the bow and is covered in debris. There was no mistake there. It did mean lots of open areas to explore. The protruding mast along the seabed gave us an indication of where we were.
As the we reached the stern we turned again towards the bow and headed up and over onto the shallowest sections of the wreck. As Ian prepared for bagging off, I played with a particularly audacious crab sat bold as brass on top of the wreck.
As Juz reported later on the boat, this wreck was the place for loved up crabs, they were everywhere.
A nice steady ascent and uneventful stops meant a total run time of 59minutes.
Back onto the boat and the first six were called for breakfast.
Dive 2 The Bottle run. Max Depth 18m 58 mins.
The bottle run was suggested by Juz and backed up by Beanie who have both done this dive before albeit a few years ago.
Skipper put us in with a very slow current meaning a gentle drift over the seabed hunting and scavenging for bottles thrown off from years of boat traffic through the flow. Also it was good scallop hunting ground. This ended up being a really enjoyable scout around, we got some decent scallops which Fiona, Skippers wife showed us how to open and cook , very good. Also we acquired throughout the group a couple of really nice bottles.
The bottle run ended up being more of a seabed dive then bottles but I have never seen so many hermit & other types of crabs. Some of them rather feisty.
SMS Dresden, Doyle - Scapa Flow 10/08/05 August 18, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentWednesday 10th AugustDive 1 SMS Dresden Max Depth 33m Run time 55min
The first of the light cruisers for us was the Dresden, the name ship for this class of world war 1 german cruiser. Skipper informed us that the shot was on the bow and so in we went. At 6m on our “bubble check” Ian pointed to his suit inflator which had mysteriously come off!! (it was there when we did our buddy check!! 
) So we spent a minute or so sorting that out whilst slowly dropping to 9m. This made up for when Ian had to fix my fin strap at 12m on the way down the shot onto the Gobernador Bories.
We left the shot at about 22m and dropped over the side of the Dresden towards the base of the bow. Here we found a little swimthrough that went from the deck through the bow, at which point we shifted around the bow, paying a visit to the conger that had made a home under one of the plates on the seabed. We then wandered back to midships along the sea bed, poking in and out of the various bits of the wreckage of the deck. Of particular interest to me was the ladder section that ran off horizontally from the deck into the wreck which when shining the torch into gave a clear indication to the size of this class of battle cruiser, as the stairs went from one deck through to the other.
Moving further up the wreck we got up to the upper railing and along the starboard side . Here the salvage blast holes had left a large corridor exposed where the holes in the side armour where portholes once were created cylindrical shafts of light that permeated the gloom.
By the time we had reached here though we had reached our bottom time and even though we were running nitrox and had not been as deep as we had planned, we did n;t have the time to go off exploring down these corridors. So Ian sent up the SMB and we completed our stops finishing jut shy of the hour mark.
Once back on board we were treated to a display from a couple of basking sharks who had arrived in Burra sound. Ian, Adam and Matt, were suited up so jumped in with their SRDs. We lost sight of the larger of the two baskers and then she surfaced right next to Ian and Adam. A fantastic sight, shame that neither of them took the camera in with them.
Dive 2 Doyle, Max Depth 14.6m 26 minutes.
Another blockship so again subject to the same tide pattern as before, In we went down we went and into the wreck again. Ian managed to find another tight fitting hole for us to get in to, interestingly enough also shaped like a toblerone. As we made our way further in the wreck opened up and all the lattice work structure of the decks became visible meaning we could weave in and out of the various deck layers investigating the life that was in there. Saw a couple of little scorpion fish that insisted on evading the camera.
Once again our bottom time was limited by the tide turning and so on 20 minutes we exited the wreck by the convieniently placed holes in the side of the hull lattice work and I was given SMB duty. I fired the bag careful to note that the reel was running freely and we ascended as a four, Ian, Beanie, Lisa and myself.
Konig, Tarbarka - 9th August 2005 August 17, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentDive 1 Koenig Max Depth 36.5m Bottom Time 30min Run time 59minThis morning Ian was suffering from blocked sinus so Gary and I buddied up for this one. Like the Kronprinz Wilhelm of the same class this is one of the big three. Like also Kronprinz and Markgraf, the Koenig after whom the class of battleship is named sits upside down.Gary and I were first down the shot, I was first on the shot and headed down with Gary behind me with the shot not far behind him…..:wink This was what I had hoped for when I booked onto this trip, dropping down the shot and seeing this huge mass of battleship appear from the gloom. The water was clear, and the ambient light meant visibility of about 10m but the shape of the hull could be made out stretching way past that. The shot was placed just off the stern so we dropped directly down to 36m. Our plan was to stay on the upturned hull as the Koenig sits deeper into the clay bottom than Kronprinz and so the opportunities to get in underneath are more limited, plus the Koenig also had been salvaged more. As a result there were large blast holes exposing the inners of the armour plating. With Ian not going on this dive, it meant I became the keeper of the lightsaber. This proved very useful for poking in the holes and then craters exposed by the salvage work.
Within far too short a time, our planned bottom time was over and it was time to deploy SMBs. As Gary carried a crack bottle SMB he was charged with SMB duty. Unfortunately it had dropped out of his pocket and was gone so we changed over to my main reel. All was going swimmingly and then it jammed, so off it went. So switch to back up spool. Sent that off and then start reeling in, and reel in and in and in and wonder why it is reeling so much when I have only ascended a few metres. Then Gary passes it back to me as a very limp and deflated bag comes back to me. So off it goes again and this time it stays. Lou and Caroline sarcastically applauded me when I finally reached the 6m stop. Thanks, as we drifted gently at 6m we passed the shot to which Gary transferred and waited there, whereas I just got my foot caught round it!!!! Sorted that and hung around on my bag as Gary continued on the shot. We surfaced at 59 minutes recovered my main bag and settled down to our brunch.
This morning Ian was suffering from blocked sinus so Gary and I buddied up for this one. Like the Kronprinz Wilhelm of the same class this is one of the big three. Like also Kronprinz and Markgraf, the Koenig after whom the class of battleship is named sits upside down.Gary and I were first down the shot, I was first on the shot and headed down with Gary behind me with the shot not far behind him…..:wink This was what I had hoped for when I booked onto this trip, dropping down the shot and seeing this huge mass of battleship appear from the gloom. The water was clear, and the ambient light meant visibility of about 10m but the shape of the hull could be made out stretching way past that. The shot was placed just off the stern so we dropped directly down to 36m. Our plan was to stay on the upturned hull as the Koenig sits deeper into the clay bottom than Kronprinz and so the opportunities to get in underneath are more limited, plus the Koenig also had been salvaged more. As a result there were large blast holes exposing the inners of the armour plating. With Ian not going on this dive, it meant I became the keeper of the lightsaber. This proved very useful for poking in the holes and then craters exposed by the salvage work.Within far too short a time, our planned bottom time was over and it was time to deploy SMBs. As Gary carried a crack bottle SMB he was charged with SMB duty. Unfortunately it had dropped out of his pocket and was gone so we changed over to my main reel. All was going swimmingly and then it jammed, so off it went. So switch to back up spool. Sent that off and then start reeling in, and reel in and in and in and wonder why it is reeling so much when I have only ascended a few metres. Then Gary passes it back to me as a very limp and deflated bag comes back to me. So off it goes again and this time it stays. Lou and Caroline sarcastically applauded me when I finally reached the 6m stop. Thanks, as we drifted gently at 6m we passed the shot to which Gary transferred and waited there, whereas I just got my foot caught round it!!!! Sorted that and hung around on my bag as Gary continued on the shot. We surfaced at 59 minutes recovered my main bag and settled down to our brunch.Dive 2 Tabarka, Max Depth 14m – 26 mins.
This is the in, down and in the wreck dive. Another of the blockships meant that also in flow where the tides were fast and slack was short.
This time we were all in together one after the other and straight into the wreck. We all followed Juz in as he had done this dive before, all except Ian who went left and in through the side of the wreck. We all met up in the large boiler room, and then separated as we went over the boilers through the engine room and along the side of through a swimthrough into the large upturned hull that created a cavern for us all to congregate in again. The large holes in the side of the wreck illuminated the inside and created a very eerie atmosphere. Ian & I along with Beanie, Lisa, Juz and Blanaid made our way back towards the stern and the engine room and boilers, passing over and around the boilers and examining the prop shaft that ran the length of the upturned hull.
As we reached the other side of the boilers we could feel that the tide had turned and that is was about to start picking up speed. Skipper had asked us to come up in one or two groups as with an 8.5 knot current running it would quickly scatter us.
So we grouped together in the shelter of an open part of the wreck in a PADI speciality kind of way and Beanie sent up the bag, we watched it fly horizontally out of the wreck and then up we went and followed it, we managed a short safety stop and surfaced on 26 minutes.
Caroline has some great pictures of this wreck so hopefully Lou will post em later.
Heres one though to remind you that Scapa can be tough on kit.
Lou’s drysuit boot,
Note the expanse of gaffer tape hanging off the bottom of the suit……..
Billy 38 - Kronprinz Wilhelm, Scapa Flow August 2005 August 16, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , 2commentsMonday 8th August 2005Dive 1 Kronprinz Wilhelm, Max Depth 38m, Segment time 30mins, Run Time 59mins
The plan was that we would tackle one of the large battleships and we opted for the slightly shallower Wilhelm with tantalising prospect of being able to get down to where the 12inch gun turrets where.
Due to the slight confusion over when we were getting in the water the last 20 minutes of kitting up were a bit frantic, so it was first ready, first in. Ian and I followed, Paul, Lisa & Beanie in and we all started down the shot together with still a bit of a rip from the current as slack approached. At about 20m the huge expanse of the upturned hull below us came into view and Ian and I dropped off the shot to free descend down the port side of the hull towards the bottom. Our aim was to find those guns. We arrived at 37m and I started finning off away from midships. Ian called me back and signalled that we should fin the other way keeping the wreck on our right and heading towards the stern, hold on I thought the notes had said fin with the wreck on the left. But I duly obliged and followed along, next thing there is the cavern that opens up to the gun turret. Ian lead in slowly and I followed both of us careful not to kick up the slit. I spotted the top of a gun barrel in the seabed. I signalled Ian he gave me a sarcastic OK signal and shone his torch up, there right in front of us was the second of the 12 inch barrels pointing into the wreck and the deck on the upturned battleship. It was an amazing sight. The turret was huge from which this enormous gun barrels protruded. The scale is very difficult to describe. We continued into the wreck a little more navigating along the gun peering deeper into the wreck. Apparently it is possible to swim through and out of the other side but we ventured no more. We slowly turned and made our way back to the turret and sneaked a peek around the other side of it and into the hull of this huge Koenig Class Battleship.
We left the wreck via the same cavern carved out of the side of the hull and proceeded towards the broken up stern, here we carved a route through a neat swimthrough into the stern noting the plating was broken allowing to either swim out through the stern or continue as we did onto the starboard side. We then made our way along the starboard side where all the plating is pretty much intact (at least the part we saw) until we came to some which had probably been blasted away. Upon reaching here we had reached our planned bottom time and it was time to begin our ascent. A steady ascent with stops along the way saw us touching the surface at 59 minutes to finish a truly spectacular dive.
.Dive 2 Gobernador Bories (affectionly known as Gobananas) Blockship Max Depth 18m 43minutes.
One of the blockships, the Gobernador Bories is one of those that has been a subject of a divernet wreck tour. As we all waited for the current to drop a little, Skipper asked for two volunteers to go in first, Ian volunteered so in we went. Skipper dropped us ahead of the shot and we drifted onto it and started our descent. Things didn’t go quite to plan, the tide was still ripping a fair bit, we didn’t really look like flags on a flag pole, but only because the flag pole namely the shot line was horizontal aswell. As we pulled ourselves down to 6m I felt my fin come loose, I quickly looked back and signalled Ian, he started sorting out the offending fin as we then sank like rocks, trying to equalise aswell as stay on the shot. He sorted the fin and went ahead of me, accelerating the speed down the shot by dumping all the air from his wing and basically riding the shot line down, so I followed suit. We reached the relative calm of the wreck and headed towards the bow and found the “toberone Swimthrough”. where the plates and decking had collapsed had left a triangular swimthrough, in which we entered and made our way down.
Beanie had warned us that on a previous trip he had got a little stuck in this one and so we proceeded with caution. Due to the fast currents there was no slit so we pulled and crawled along wiggling and winding our way out. Great fun. As we exited we met up with Blanaid and Gary and headed off towards the elevated stern section. We spent the rest of the dive finning around and through the stern, taking pictures, enjoying the light of streaming onto the wreck from the surface.
After 34 minutes I sent up the bag and we started to ascend. A practise for when we did Tarbarka as the tide had turned and the current was picking up again. Unfortunately we failed in our practise and ascended too slow so that we ended drifting a loooonnnng way off the wreck, skipper was not impressed! We hit the surface at 43 mins and Invincible was there waiting, clocking the current at approaching 8.5knots. Lou and Caroline we calculated travelled 0.5 mile in about 7 minutes. It was quite impressive.
All back safely onboard and we headed back to Stromness for the afternoon and evening.
James Barrie, Karlsruhe, Scapa Flow August 15, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , 1 comment so farSunday 7th August
Dive 1 James Barrie, 42m try dive.
Max Depth 42m, Bottom Time 25 mins, Run time 80mins.
As trip organiser Ian was given the honour of first in and as his buddy I had to follow!!. So off the side on Invincible we leapt on straight onto the shot. Quick signal and we started our descent.
There was still a bit of tide running as we descended and so we pulled our way down the shot, quick bubble check at 6m all clear, then carry on some more. Our plan gave us two minutes to descend onto the wreck. That was hard work.
At 25m I turned to Ian to give him the “I’ve had enough of this dragging down the shot first you take over signal” when I turned back and saw the side of the hull looming ahead. At this point I dropped off the shot grateful that I didn’t have to pull myself down any further and glided down to the top of the hull looking over the edge onto the deck that descended another 12m below us. We dropped over ahead on the wheelhouse and sneaked a peek inside the cargo holds where the decking had come away exposing large holes into the holds. As we went inside Ian spotted a pair of claws retreating back from the torch light. I would have taken a picture but unfortunately my camera had decided not to join us inside the wreck and preferred to stay outside lodged on the opening into the hold where an inquisitive wrasse had taken an interest. A quick flash of the torch to Ian and the camera was unhooked bungee retracted and reunited with clip on D ring. (needless to say a more suitable position on my rig was picked for the second dive that day) 
Not being able to get the camera sorted in time meant I had missed out on a couple of what would have been some very interesting shots of me looking out of the wreck into the clear green water of the flow through these windows created by nature onto the others as they past by us. Maybe next time.
We came out of the holds and made our way to the bow, double back on ourselves past the holds onto the wheelhouse and around to the engine room. Before we knew it our planned time was reached and we needed to start our ascent.
As we ascended over the wheelhouse we pitched up fairly close to the shot so we ascended that completing our stops as per our plan and then finishing off clearing our computers. Unfortunately my Aladdin ran slightly over it’s predicted 6 mins extra deco stop it had predicted over the Suunto with accelerated deco and required an extra 18 minutes from me. Not wishing to bend it, I obliged and hung on an extra 12 minutes after Ian, Blan and Gary had completed their stops. Glad that I did as they had a bit of a wait on the surface whilst Skipper picked up the others who had bagged up off the wreck.
Back on the boat, Brekkie, Banter and quiet reflective moments in the War museum at Lyness.
Dive 2 Karlsruhe Max Depth 24m - 60mins
Again Ian and I were first in and straight down the shot, at 8m the top of the Karlsruhe came into sight. At 12m we reached the top of the up turned hull. We dropped off to the right and made our way along the apparently uninteresting side of the wreck. On this side though we were greeted by large plumose anemomes adorning the side of the wreck. We passed around the bow and back along the other side, where a lot of the hull had collapsed giving opportunities for swim throughs and ferreting in and around the wreck.
With the Karlsruhe being quite broken in places from salvaging and time, it afforded some fantastic atmospheric images where the light from above streamed through the wreck casting parts of the interior into silhouette, it was really quite stunning. 
As we made our way around we were greeted by a number of large wrasse and crab and as Ian bagged up I got to play with a Jelly fish who posed for a couple of pics including the Killer shot on the previous post.
We ascended on 50 minutes and gave ourselves a nice steady ascent to break the surface on 60 minutes.
Scapa Flow 6th -13th August 2005 August 15, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , 1 comment so farAll of my diving in 2005 was geared towards this trip. Late in 2004 I agreed to go on this trip being nowhere near able to go in terms of ability and equipment. After 8 months of planning, buying, courses and getting in the water and having some great diving experiences I was ready..ish.
We had an absolutely fabulous trip, the YD trip report thread is found here with everyone’s views and stories.
But here is the awards list as presented by Lou
“Down to business………..The YD GIG ONE AWARDS, as voted for by the full crew…..
Quote of the Week - Gary (WWD) for “If this boat was a bit faster…”
Longest Dive Lisa at 90 mins, which in 12 deg water, doing 2 dives a day for 6 days is pretty good!
Shortest Dive Ian C on CCR…..3 minutes!
Biggest Gas Bill Matt - over £100, just for him and then he had Adam’s tab to pick up too…..oops
Choccie Monster Caroline - for the unrelenting consumption of chocolate for brekkie
Willy Wonka Gary - for supply of above chocolate to all and sundry
Beer of the Week Dark Island - we forgot to decide on this so I have taken a unilateral decision, but I know Adam would approve
Killer of the Week Ian Airassisted - for his skilled pursuit of baby scallops….and some bigguns too. The wee ones went back, of course.
Kit Jinxer of the Week Ian C….involved in at least two huge failures….we suspect sabotage
Shot Sinker Extraordinaire Gary, for taking the buoy to visit the wreck and for the quote “I only took it halfway”
Tart of the Week Caroline - for sleeping in the most places….
this was because of …..
Snorer of the Week Gary. Despite some late challenges his jet plane impressions on night 1 are forever etched into our eardrums and he is a deserved winner of this title
Wreck of the Week A tight race but the Kronprinz Wilhelm won it (or Billy 38 as it was known…). Close losers were the F2 & Barge and the Go-bananas.
Most Promising Newcomer Adam - for fitting right in, taking everything in his stride and on his chin.
keeping it in the family….the
Most likely to break a hip Award goes to dad Matt
Most Expensive Kit Breakages is me. One pair of drysuit boots replaced, a dry set of Xerotherm Arctics due to the somewhat “wet” state of my thinsulate and a flooded Halcyon torch…ouch.
Potty Training Certificate Gizmo…….it was only a small bubble apparently…
The Premature Award Ian Airassisted for being caught as he leapt ont he “ready to go” part of “ready to go in 10 minutes”…….on the Tabarka - next stop Norway
Spot of the Week has to be the Basking Sharks…
Product of the Week Aqaustuff, don’t ask. Please. However in my defence, please click here….http://www.aquastuff.co.uk/
Sadly the Bah Humbug Award goes to the team on MV Karin for spoiling some fun…..our revenge was having a much nicer boat, so there!
The Grand Prize….MUPPET OF THE WEEK drum roll, please……………goes to GIZMO! We had a lovely view on our 6m stop of Giz on the wreck, filling his blob to bursting point before letting it go, it whizzed past us closely followed by the jammed reel to which it was attached. In well-trained form he didin’t panic and brought out his back-up blob and spool. He calmly put air into this and let it go and then began winding the line onto his spool like crazy. His buddy, Gary, meanwhile had gone up to about 12 meteres to collect this limp SMB and was bringing it back down to him as he reeled Still, third time lucky ….. we won’t mention that Giz was only deploying because gary lost his gas blob on the way down the shot
And that concludes the awards”
I finally got around to sorting out the pictures from the trip
