We woke up this morning to find it pissing down. Marlene cooked us a full breakfast with porridge on the side which was lovely. After helping Marlene clear away, we ambled the entire four hundred yards through the rain down to the boat, the John L, under skipper James and crewman Andrew (not Andy).


Upon arrival, we were informed that the first dive was a nice easy one on the Dresden. This came with the polite request that we keep an eye out for some kit that belonged to the deceased diver.

The weather did not improve as we went out into Scapa Flow, and we glared a lot at both sea and sky. Nevertheless, we jumped in and descended the shot line to the Dresden. And just... wow. The visibility was just stunning. So I whipped camera out and took a lot of pictures that really aren’t interesting to anyone else but me. We mooched along the hull, turned around mooched along the hull the other way before returning to the surface.

Where it was flipping cold.

Fortunately, Adrian, who hadn’t dived, had the kettle on for much welcomed cuppa teas and Joss was everyone’s best friend as he’d brought vast quantities of Twixes.

We moored up at an isolated museum/cafe randomly located on an island next to some dry fish pens. Lyness pier apparently. Unfortunately it did not allow customers in wet or drysuits, and as it was still pissing down, few people decided to get out of their nice warm and slightly soggy suits.

Second dive of the day we had to queue up for, as there were three other boats already on the wreck. This was the F-2 and the YC51 barge. When we eventually got in the water and down, we found that stunning wildlife abounded, and I was slowly starting to get the hang of my camera. We met Steve and Phil coming the other way under the bow of the barge, and later encountered Steff hanging on the bottom of her DSMB while Jon rummaged in the wreckage for his lost glove.

When the boat moored in the harbour, some of us were a little dismayed at the very long and very vertical and very seaweed covered iron ladder we had to climb to get off. But we all made it up without incident. The showers were calling, but as we passed the pub that called louder, so a pit stop was spontaneously had.

The evening meal was enjoyed at the Ferry Inn, although stock seemed somewhat limited. No orange juice, no pink wine, no steak and ale pie, no mackerel, no... well quite a lot of other things. But what there was, was lovely.