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Our starting point was Stromness on Orkney in mid-August , where we arrived at the quayside in darkness having taken the ferry from Aberdeen earlier in the evening . Kit was sorted for an early start the next morning and the engines duly fired up at 8.30am – alarms were definitely not required on this trip . Always subject to the vagaries of the weather , the original plan was to head straight out to the first Outlier – North Shoal . The weather had other plans – shifting blankets of sea mist carried on northerly winds kept us hemmed around the Orkneys for three days until there was a gradual shift to southerlies . However , the sites we dived did not disappoint .
Starting with Scapa
The first site was in Scapa Flow on the magnificent wreck of the SMS Dresden . Scuttled by the Germans in 1919 and lying on her port side in 28m , the wreck
is covered in dead men ’ s fingers and plumose anemones , with a whole array of crustaceans crammed into crevasses . Great shoals of juvenile herring hung above the structure . At midships we passed one of the intact 6-inch guns sitting silently in its caisson , pointlessly aimed at passing divers and wrasse .
A huge rectangular fissure-riven rock that just broke the surface at Inga Ness was next . The briefing from skipper Bob was quite clear : “ Come up anywhere but around the back of this lump because I cannot take the boat in to pick you up ”. Passing the kelp line , we dropped down walls festooned with anemones and sponges , within which a great variety of nudibranchs went about their business of feeding and breeding .
Turning the corner of the massive rock brought us to a place with a wide and deep ravine where three divers could pass
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1 SMS Dresden 2 Inga Ness 3 Noup Head 4 MV Tomalina – Noup Head 5 MV Oceania – Egalsay 6 MV Endeavour – Shapinsay 7 North Shoal 8 North Shoal 9 Eilean nan Ron 10 Eilean Cluimhraig Cave 11 Pinnacle – Eilean Cluimhraig 12 Ledges – Eilean Cluimhraig 13 Night Dive – Eilean nan Ron 14 Cape Wrath Gulley |
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Plumose anemones on the Dresden
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Scotland �
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Orkney Islands
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UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY BY SONNY WALKER |
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Foreboding lines of the Clasina |
Emily Gamble , ready to dive |