Scapa Flow Trip Report Part 3 - James Barrie, Karlsruhe, Markgraf August 22, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentWe awoke to the weather starting to turn but it was still OK for diving in the flow. Ian had decided he wasn’t bothered about diving a trawler and so Steve and I went in on this one. (more…)
Scapa Flow Trip Report Part 2 Brummer, Gobernador Bories, Kronprinz Wilhelm, Tarbarka August 21, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentSMS Brummer, Max Depth 34.1m, Dive time 61 minutes.
Dimensions: 460ft x 44ft x 19ft
Launched: December 1915 4,308 tons
Scuttled: 13:05 21/6/1919
The Wreck Today: The Wreck Today: The Brummer lies on her starboard side in a depth of around 36m, surface to hull is in the region of 20m, it is arguably the most impressive of the Light Cruisers. From the bow, finning aft the 5.9 inch gun looms up at you, passing along the barrel and over the protective shield, you reach the conning tower. The armoured command centre, with horizontal viewing slits. On top sits the gun control range finder. Beyond this lies the bridge and signal deck. The mid section is blasted out but the stern is intact, the officers accommodation and the 5.9inch guns are worthy of a mention. (more…)
Just back from Scapa Flow August 13, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentGot back from Scapa flow at 4am this morning having left Scrabster at 2pm yesterday afternoon. It was a very good week, if very different from the same trip last year. As last year we had booked a 7 day liveaboard on MV invincible, as the boat and Skipper are excellent and this proved to be a real bonus this week. The weather and the visibility was not as kind to us as last year, with the peak of the weather being on Wednesday with force 7/8 winds gusting to 50mph, but due to the nature of the flow and the boat we were on and the Skipper at the helm, we were able to dive every day.
We had a very eventful week and the diving was at times challenging but I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I sort out the individual dive reports I think it worthwhile to direct you to a thread on Yorkshire Divers where Garf, one of those on our trip has posted a very frank and thorough review of his very eventful dive on the Markgarf, one of the battleships resting upside down in 46m. His report highlights the dangers and hazards of wreck diving in the very dark UK conditions and I think is vital reading.
http://www.yorkshire-divers.com/forums/trip-reports/42362-trapped-alone-45m-fun-fun-fun.html
Return to the U90 July 24, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , 1 comment so far
One of the finest dives I have done was last year from Selsey when we dived the U90 as part of the YD selsey gig. With fantastic vis and an intact wreck it was a truly great days diving. Having had such a great dive last year the next time I dived it would have to be exceptional in order to compare. Whilst the vis was not as good as last year the wreck was. After the dive today Simon commented that the poorer vis meant he concentrated more on the wreck, and this was also the case for me today. (more…)
Warwick Deeping on the YD Shandy Portsmouth Gig July 23, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentI booked onto this weekends worth of diving as soon as Paul emailed me last year and said “we going to do the isle of wight wrecks again, are you up for it?” Following on from last years Selsey Gig and stunning diving, I made no hesistation in booking on. I put myself down for two days worth, Friday and Monday.
Friday was Warwick Deeping and Louis.
With a leisurely meet time of 10.45 and ropes off at 11.45 I meandered over to Otterbourne to pick up my twinset from being filled and made my way down to Gosport. On the way I met up with Sean whose cylinders I had picked up on Wednesday at Wraysbury. After all that I was still down there for 9.45. I met up with the other early bird Dave Archer and started to slowly load my kit onto the boat. (more…)
Getting closer to a return to Scapa Flow. June 28, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : General, UK diving, Wreck Diving , add a commentSorting through my blog this evening, I had the opportunity to read back through the Scapa thread from last year on YD and remembered what a good craic we had up there last year. I’ve added all my dive reports to this blog now, they all appear in August 2005 Archive
Reading back through the dives again has wetted my appetite for returning and made me think what is on my to do list for the “Go with the Flow” YD gig this year.
- Having a look past the guns underneath Billy 38 - (of course finding them again first)
- The ladder on Dresden
- Staying with my buddy to explore the Koln this year
- Exploring more of the bow section of F2
- Explore some of those salvage holes on the Konig.
This should be a really excellent week again. Can’t wait.
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.
