Saturday morning Steph and I grabbed the ferry from Scrabster to Stromness. It was rough seas, so the ferry was a little delayed, but it worked out. We had breakfast on the ferry, which for some reason decided to have the dining room at the top front of a ferry that was known to go through rough seas regularly. We were the only ones in the galley after everyone else grabbed their food and went to the aft of the ship.
Once we got to Stromness we dropped our bags off at the Valhalla dive boat, then went to the museum in town. It was a cute museum with a lot of great history, especially about the ships and the world wars and how Scapa flow was a part of them. They had 3D scans of the ships which was great to see as a preview of what we could expect on the dives.
We met everyone at the dive boat, which was cozy. Due to the cold seas and rainy climate the boat wasn’t the luxury sun bathing style of boat that the ones we’ve had in the warm water dives. The ship was at one point in the Royal Navy, but had been converted to a dive ship. It had a nifty elevator on the side for getting out of the water.
Sunday was too windy to dive, so we took the day in town. We tried hiking around the island, but due to the high winds as soon as we got to the point walking became difficult. It was also a little rainy, although just a little bit the wind made it hit harder and not as nice to walk in. We looked around town more and found that there was going to be live music at one of the pubs. We stopped by and it was great to listen to the folk music as there were eight or so musicians with different instruments including flutes and numerous string instruments. They played and sang and we got to talk to the bartender who was from the US.
The first day of dives was good, and I was able to get comfortable in the drysuit at depth, as well as figuring out my SMB deploy. The wrecks were some of the easier ones, but they were still interesting.
We dived the Karlsruhe II, Coln II, Dresden II, V86, König, and Brummer. During the dives I saw a lot of the guns, armored control towers, and officer quarters. Since these have been salvaged they don’t have the same kinds of artefacts that were in Chuuk, but it was still amazing. The life was different from wreck to wreck and there were lots of crabs on some, lobsters on others, and nudibranchs on the ones with more grass. The lobsters were some of the largest I’ve ever seen. On our last dive some of the divers decided to grab a few scallops from the sand surrounding the wreck as well.
Unfortunately Steph got sick halfway through, so she wasn’t able to dive the second half of the trip. I ended up pairing up with Bob, since his buddy Paul was congested the entire trip and couldn’t equalise. When Bob wasn’t diving I followed the trip of older gents around, with Ian being the leader of that group and an extremely experienced diver. I dialed in my thermals, weights, and SMB deploy to the point that I was comfortable with it all by the third day. I got some extra thick dive socks and wore my sweat pants and more shirt layers to get the extra thermal that made me comfortable during the dives. Steph lost her main light, so we got her a stand in, and she ordered a new one. She got lucky that the dive shop in Stromness only carries the brand she prefers.
The food was plentiful, if a little plain and overcooked. I probably put on a few kilos. They also had a nice sauna, steam room, and hot tub at the wellness centre in Stromness, but we only went to use that on the last day.
Saturday we grabbed the ferry back to Great Britain and hopped on the train down to Inverness. We didn’t realise, but the Loch Ness marathon which ends in Inverness was the weekend we were coming back, so the whole place was far busier than we expected. That evening we got a nice Mexican dinner together and then went to the Wee Bar for a drink.
We spent one more night and day in Inverness and took a tour of the amazing Dunrobin Castle. The castle was surprisingly one of the best we’ve seen in Europe with a lovely castle that was pretty much fully open to see, amazing gardens, and a falconry show. During the show the first Hawk saw a pidgeon in a tree and decided to take it out. The rest of the tour was fine, with a stop by a small town for lunch, a lighthouse, a mermaid statue, and one of the stones carved by the Picts in the 8th century AD.
What would have been week 196 in London.
