I always said I probably wouldn’t ever do the German fleet in Scapa Flow – not because I didn’t think that the diving would be good but because the 14 hour drive seemed a bit of a waste when I could get to caves in France, Florida or Mexico quicker. 

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go - this mecca for English wreck divers always promised good diving – but I was reluctant to give up a weeks cave diving to do it. This changed when I was asked to run a trip for GUE tech 2 divers. So mid afternoon one Friday found me, Al, Andy Kerslake and John Grogan heading for Scapa where we would meet the boat, Valkyrie, and all our kit which had travelled with John Kendall and David Martin in a van.

I was at home preparing dinner one night just after Christmas when I switched on the news and saw a battle being bravely fought to save a ship which had run into difficulties off the coast in severe weather. The Greek-registered ship was heading for Alexandria but was stricken mid-channel 35 miles southeast of Dartmouth.

Over the next few hours the story changed from attempts to save the ship to attempts to save her crew. A joint French and English rescue mission was launched to save the twenty crew, some of whom were injured after being pounded by force seven gales off the coast and with some acts of bravery the lifeboats were brought alongside the massive ship and all were saved.

A well fitting harness should be adjusted so that it is not really tight (you need to be able to get out of it easily) but not so loose that the set rolls around on your back which would be really uncomfortable.  I’ve drafted out some instructions to help you get it right for you.

A diver's harness should be rigged from one piece of webbing and should have no quick-release buckles or other failure points. Though plastic quick-release buckles seem to simplify the process of getting into and out of one's dive gear, these “savings” are illusory, putting a diver at greater risk that s/he would be without it. In many cases this could prove fatal as the diver clings to tanks whose negative tendency stands in stark contrast to his/her own positive tendency. In cases where the loosened or dislodged quick release does not cause a diver to lose their tanks it can easily cause a dangerously significant shift in weight, throwing the diver off balance.

After a Sunday spent fixing, filling, sleeping and eating, Monday saw us head to Ressel for the dive I had been planning for some time – the deep circuit which takes us to a max depth of 70 metres for about 2.7 kilometres total travel distance. 

This dive done open circuit requires six stages, three for bottom gas and three deco/travel gases.   The stages in this picture are all to be carried by me.  The RBs take four stages and each of us had twinsets on which were intended for redundancy alone.

Working together the large amount of kit required was carted down the goat track to the river quite quickly and we ate lunch in a very civilised manner before kitting up.  The water level was way down on where it had been on Thursday.  I got in first and spent some time arranging my stages in a way that I was comfortable with for each of the drop which were to come, clipped off my scooter and rested in the 24 degree river water.