Runner786

 

“Wednesday 18th September 1907 wasn’t to be Captain John MacKechnie’s day when, at 11:45 am, his steamer the SS Kintyre got in the way of the SS Maori, which was undergoing trials in the Firth of Clyde. The Maori ploughed into Kintyre’s starboard quarter, causing her to sink in just four minutes. McKechnie was hauled, exhausted from the water, but William Lennox, his Chief Engineer drowned. After the impact MacKechnie had vainly steered the Kintyre towards the shore, which explains the wreck’s final orientation. The bow rests at around 30m and drops to the stern around 50m and can be a challenging dive for experienced divers”  C.Divers

Renowned as a true diving adventure the SS.Kintyre literally shouted out for me to visit it down in the depths of the Clyde. I am not sure where or when I first heard about the Kintyre but for some reason I had fixated on diving it for years. It had come up in a conversation between Neil and I and it turned out he had dived it with Karon, who at one time had actually lived on the sea front right next to the dive site. Neil said he would ask Karon and crew if they fancied a return visit. And as luck would have it everyone was keen.

 

We planned it for end of November , the tides and currents were right, the weather hopefully high pressure day arrived and thank the weather gods for a perfect high pressure sunny day.  I left Hawick early to arrive at Neil’s house in Glasgow for 7:30am.   Our plan was to be in the water for 10am high tide and slack , and out by 11:30 before the tide sucked us out into the Clyde.  We quickly headed towards lags and joined the Glasgow crew of John , Grant , Callum and the bubble queen herself Karon.

Our access was a rocky outcrop by the sea where we would drop into an 6m deep pool and swim out.  After a hard hour lugging our equipment down we finally entered the water just after 10am, gathered our group and took a bearing for the pipe then headed out and down into the darkness of the Clyde.

It’s a technical dive that needs to be respected , a long dive from shore with tides to plan, currents to watch for, dark , deep and with decompression commitments. Neil and I would cut our deco short with a tank of 50% which would also give us a good margin of safety should god forbid anything unplanned happen.We followed the pipe until a fixed line left it heading east at around 33m. We followed the line out into the darkness until a large Bow appeared from the gloom. We had struck lucky with our viz and could see at least 6m into our torchlight and the wreck looked very intact except for in places its substructure was bare making it look like a huge whale skeleton you see hanging in the museums.

We descended to 47m and at this point the wreck was broken and lying on the bottom so with deco clocking up and a little narcosis starting to fog the brain we reversed our dive and headed back up its carcass. Neil and I signaled to leave the wreck and we headed off up the line, eventually seeing the pipe welcoming us out the darkness to guide us topside and home.

At 18m we held , altered our computers and switched our gas to 50% , DECO had began and 25 minutes showed as we headed slowly up to 6m. The deco was easy playing around on a sandy bottom at 6m . And it was here that my infamous Irn-Bru deco movie was born , its amazing what you have to do to pass those deco minutes 😀

Eventually everyone had surfaced, the dive had been executed perfectly and everyone was safe and smiling. We were all buzzing as we sorted our gear and started the strenuous job of getting everything back to the car. I loved this dive , it was a fantastic micro-Adventure , it had everything I love about what I do, another amazing trip to see something fantastic and with good friends to share it with.   Result! another bucket-list dream accomplished.

Thanks again to Grant , John and Karon for the superb photos……

Scapa Flow !!  What can I say but the dream destination for drysuit wearing , cold water adventure divers. Wrecks and history “flow”ing from every nook and cranny of the Orkney Islands makes it an unforgettable dive destination!  The Flow is home to the scuttled German fleet captured back in World War One and sank by their own crews to stop the British Navy using the ships. Theres history galore and If you want to know much more then please follow this link for a fantastic resource far better than I could ever do here … SCAPA FLOW WRECKS

I was lucky enough to get a chance to live on a boat diving the Flow with my friends the madcap Glasgow dive crew of Grant, John, Karon,Neil, Davie and Donnie , along for the ride with me was Undersea Wull and a special guest appearance by Laura from London and the sidemount magician Luca from IL Grande Blu in  Portofino all made for an incredible dive trip way beyond what I had been expecting.

Wull and I dragged our arses out of bed at 4:30am and headed North for for the Orkney Islands in what can only be described as inclement weather. Wind and rain battered us all the way to Thurso and we arrived at Scrabster half expecting the crossing to be cancelled but not up there in the North, oh no!  on we went, boarding as normal, rough crossing aye aye sailor !!  Holding down my dinner for most of it and sleeping the rest we survived the stormy crossing and as we hit the headland the mist opened up to give me the view I was waiting for, the Old Man of Hoy standing erect and proud against the headland welcoming us.

We docked at Stromness harbour and met up with the rest of the troops. Heading dockside to board the MV Sunrise, a converted deep sea fishing vessel that was to be our lodgings for the week. Geordie was the captain and Chris his son was our 1st mate/main man aboard ship, both are characters of the highest degree so good times were sure to ensue.  Downstairs in the small small cubicles that were to be home for the week we unpacked our kit , I barely fitted into my bunk and couldn’t help wonder how my giant of a friend Neil Farmer would get on as the week passed 😀

Day one was a rough sea and a baptism by fire to the Flow. Thankfully the MV Sunrise has a sheltered gear-up so despite bumping my head a million times on the iron roof I was dry and wind free. The boat has a diver exit hatch with limited visibility and a long drop into the sea , as we approached the dive entry point a siren would sound and off we went like parachutists through it … exciting when all you can see is a big dark pitching sea!  We were in good hands though with Geordie and Chris in charge.  My first dive was with John on the SMS Karlsruhe , a battle cruiser with its large guns still intact. We exited nicely and dropped down to the wreck at 30m hunting for the guns to grab a photo opportunity or two. Our dive went to plan and soon we were daydreaming on a 35 minute decompression stop  before surfacing to a quick pick up by the MV. Sunrise. After all the divers were onboard we headed for our next dive site the F2 Barge sank in Gutter Sound. Karon and Grant were in charge of lunch, hot dogs and soup on the surface interval menu. The F2 was a worthwhile dive and a good end to day one .. Our teeth were sunk and time to dial it up on day two.

Day 2 saw Neil and I dive the 150m long  battle ship KronPrinz Wilhelm and the cruiser Coln Wreck , it was amazing to dive a huge battleship and appreciate the massive scale of it just lying there on the sea bed. Our first dive was rough but the forecast was for the weather to break in the afternoon and true to its word it did just that , we cruised back to port in flat calm conditions.

That night we headed to Marwick cliffs, visited the Kitchener monument and I braved a “tree”on the cliff edge looking out at the most beautiful sea vista I have ever seen.

Day 3 was an early start to a morning sun like I have never seen before, blazing orange with the birds following us out to sea swooping and crying over us. Every day the sky treated us to show of grandeur but this morning it had outdonr itself!  Our intention was  to dive the light cruiser SMS Dresden and return to the SMS Karlsruhe . Everything went to plan and we dived in dead flat sea.

Day 4 another early start to the famous Bayern gun turrets and onto the mine layer SMS Brummer.  This day was one of the best , the turrets have fallen out from the upturned wreck and landed turtle in the sand at 47m deep.Laura joined Neil, Karon and I as we dropped down the shot line into the darkness. There are 2 huge identical turrets next to each other, it was a fantastic sight to see.

After the turrets and everyone was accounted for we headed for the port of Lyness. Its where the Scapa flow Naval museum is and well worth the visit just to see the big defence guns and a cinema inside a huge gas storage cylinder running a loop of “The history of Scapa Flow”. Sat alone in there watching the movie on a 100 foot high projection on the wall listening to the reverberating commentary, it was surreal, very surreal !

The SMS Brummer was next on the horizon and what a dive !!  Neil and I descended to the huge hull of the 140m long mine laying cruiser, following along , exploring and chilling until our dive plan required us to surface , loved that wreck !  that night we headed to Twatt and the cliffs of Yesnaby. Another place everyone must visit !!

Day 5 was to be the gargantuan SMS Markgraf sat in 47m of water,  and it was indeed huge!!  This has to be the largest wreck in Scapa and with our good visibility we could really take in the enormity of it.  This is what its all about I thought as we cruised along its bow.  Next up we had a visit to the Seydlitz salvage site and dived around all the broken wreckage. Not the best dive but huge shoals of fish spinning around in huge bundles made it a gem anyways.

Day 6 and our last day in the water had us choose to return to a couple of favorites from the week, the Bayern Gun turrets for another exploration and the Koenig to finish the week. Man Those turrets really were a sight sat upside down on that sandy bottom.

Sadly it was our last night but we hit the pub in town for a meal, inviting Geordy and his wife to join us .  Steak, fish, Beer and great stories ensued, just as they should when 12 excited and battle seasoned adventurers get round a table.

Scapa Flow I will be back !

Mark Lyons ッ