of her dad coming up behind her; the guy who’ d spent fifteen minutes on deco being circled by a porbeagle shark. I loved helping people have experiences that they’ ll remember for the rest of their lives.
Scapa is Scapa. Thanks to its sheltered geography, it’ s usually diveable even in winds well over 40 knots. You might surface in a hailstorm, or under the most intense rainbow you’ ve ever seen. It was great to be around divers who embraced its extremes with a sense of wonder, like the woman who caught me nervously watching giant snow clouds building on the horizon, and said,“ Wow, that sky is metal as Hell.”
3 Plan the dive, dive the wreck, don’ t wreck the plan
“ Snorkels don’ t work so well in big waves,” remarked one recreational diver as he dekitted.“ Why were you using a snorkel?” I asked.“ Snorkels are handy for when you run out of air,” he said cheerfully. I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth.
At the other end of the scale, I spoke to a MOD3 rebreather diver who was preparing to jump into 40m with a seven-litre air bailout. I asked if he’ d done the maths on that for a ninety-minute runtime. He told me that he wasn’ t going to spend the whole hour and a half at 40m.
Askdjhaksjdhahsk gjigsdfsdk; o; ok sfdklfsdksfdkl
Sorry, I just had to bang my head against the keyboard for a second there. Bailing out after 70 minutes’ bottom time at thirty metres requires more than 3,000 litres of
Deckhand Luke kitting up
The view from the dive deck
PHOTO: KATRIN HARSCH
33