Machinery on the
UKDIVING
Endeavour wreck
Turns out this was the MV Tomalina whose skipper fell asleep at the wheel in almost dead calm conditions in 1989 . The ship was jammed up the gulley by a gentle southerly , while the boulders ripped a hole in the hull . The crew just stepped off the sinking vessel onto the flat stone slabs that rise a couple of metres from the surface either side , making it an easy rescue for the local lifeboat .
This is a very special dive – some say the best dive site in Orkney ’ s north isles . It is only on Northerly winds that this site can be dived safely , so as a consequence it is seldom visited . Wrecksite . eu describes this site as “ one of the most exposed in Orkney ” and that “ the wreck lies between two pinnacles which act as funnels to any swell , making it potentially very dangerous in anything but Northerly winds ”.
Navigating Eynhallow Sound
The next day , both dives were on wrecks . The first was the Oceania – a hapless tugboat that sank in 20m following a collision with another tug and the second the Endeavour near Shapinsay , a Royal Navy cable layer and retriever . These vessels set cables across entrances to naval anchorages to prevent U-Boats sneaking in . Endeavour was another collision casualty ; this time with a vessel named Heracles in 1900 . Both were amazing dives with much superstructure still intact and colonised with a myriad of colourful life including several slinky ling fish . Drifting off the Oceania with the turn of the tide , we ranged across a shale seabed , which was home to great numbers of mature king scallops – a number of which we prepared as a starter for dinner that evening .
At our anchorage at Balfour , the new day dawned bright and at last the winds had moved to gentle Southerlies . This meant we could head North and West to the first of The Outliers – North Shoal . This is two submerged pinnacles which rise from 40m to around 5m and are totally exposed to swells and currents . Our three-hour steam to the site would first take us through Eynhallow Sound between Rousay and mainland Orkney . Not only is this narrow but has a shallow bar running across it . Both features , plus the added momentum of wind over tide stack up the sea into a furious wall and we headed straight into it .
Those who had not risen early got a savage awakening as within moments we went from flat calm sea into the huge 6m swell across the bar , which sent the bows of Clasina high in the air and crashing down into the next surge . Bob expertly navigated the channel to calmer waters and on we went with the Southerlies rising in strength behind us .
When we arrived at North Shoal , the current was running fast and the swell was rising . So , we split into two groups for the next dive . It was a rapid negative buoyancy descent , to get to the bottom of the shot as swiftly as possible . We arrived at the shelter of the boilers of the smashed-up wreck of the unfortunate MV Kingston Turquoise , which had struck North Shoal and sank in 1965 .
We left the boilers and steadily moved up and across the rock ledges , sheltered for now on the lee side of the pinnacles . A lot of cat sharks sat on ledges , plus congers in the crevasses as well as lobster and crayfish . One buddy pair swore they ’ d spotted a dolphin during the dive . All too soon , we were at the kelp line and traversing through the great swaying forest , disturbing many wrasse .
I looked up to see what cast a sudden shadow across the vista to see a huge shoal of mackerel passing by between us and the surface . At 17m we seemed to run out of rock , so we cast off into the current , rising slowly to the safety stop in the blankness of deep green . This is real open ocean diving and the rewards of such a wild place are
Sonny Walker and the scallop
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