Twelve members of ECSAC travelled north on Friday. The weather was truly biblical with torrential rain and strong winds. People stayed overnight at various hotels before continuing their journey on Saturday morning to Scrabster Ferry Terminal. Everything was loaded into the dive containers before we travelled as foot passengers to Stromness. Once all our gear was on the deck of The Clasina, we quickly set up our kit, stowed bags and put personal gear in cabins. A meal at the Ferry Inn completed the day.

Twelve divers gathered in the galley on Sunday morning for the boat briefing. Diving outside the Flow was out of the question, with a 2m swell and 40mph winds forecast for much of the week. Thankfully, diving inside the comparative shelter of Scapa Flow was possible. As The Clasina is a powerful and stable boat, the skipper and the crew superb, our dives were as safe as they could be, even when the sea conditions were challenging.

The pattern for the week was to dive twice a day with a dive brief before each dive. The morning dive was usually around 9.30am and the afternoon dive around 2.30pm if it wasn’t tide dependant.

The wrecks in Scapa Flow are truly iconic and steeped in the history of WW1. All are worthy of two dives just to appreciate their size and to find and recognise different structures.

 Sunday: The Dresden and The Karlsruhe.

 Monday: The Coln and the submarine. UB116.

 Tuesday: The Brummer and the blockship, Goberader Bores.

 Wednesday: The Coln and the blockship, The Tabarka .

 Thursday: Steve and Jan dived The Markgraf battleship. Everyone else dived The Dresden.

 Second dive: The Hurdles.

 Friday:  Bob called the planned dive on UB116 due to the swell and wind. Instead, we visited The F2  and Barge. 6 of us finished the week on The Karlsruhe.