UK DIVING
Ontheedgeof theworld
1,600 miles by car and 555 nautical miles by boat was all it took to get Jane Morgan to St Kilda and back . So , was the diving in the UK ’ s most remote outpost worth the journey ?
W Above : Looking down on Village Bay
on the island of Hirta
P Right : Boreray and Stac Lee
T
he headline I saw on the BBC as I headed out the door was “ Floods as torrential rain hits Britain ”. I ’ d checked the journey and I had 819 miles to drive .
“ You ’ re mad , you ’ ll never leave port ,” were the stark warnings from my friends . But I thought , “ Hmm , you don ’ t know the skipper ” as I kept everything crossed . Anyway the lure of St Kilda , however iffy the weather , was far too strong for me to consider pulling out of the trip . I drove across the country , with the weather front nipping at my heels practically all the way from Penzance to Scrabster .
I arrived in Orkney the following day and the weather forecast was not looking good . It may be odd to talk about diving the wreck of the German Grand Fleet light cruiser Köln in Scapa Flow as a consolation : it ’ s actually one of my favourite wrecks , but my mind was set on places further afield . Anyway , despite the wind we managed to get out into the flow on day one and enjoyed a couple of cracking dives . Day two and with a forecast looking annoyingly similar we headed out to Burra Sound . To our great delight , after the first dive a window of weather opportunity opened up and we battened down the hatches and were on our way .
Loch Eriboll
Now , as we left Orkney there was talk of rough crossings so as usual when the going gets tough I went to sleep and missed all the fun . I woke as we arrived in Loch Eriboll six hours later , just in time for an afternoon dive .
This is a 10-mile long sea loch that has been used as a safe deep-water anchorage for centuries . It is the
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