Mark’s Diving Journal

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.