After the long 10.5 hour drive we stopped overnight at the Park Hotel in Thurso for B+B. The following morning we sailed across to The Orkneys from Scrabster, full of anticipation.

On arrival we spent the rest of the day unpacking our gear & sorting out our cabins aboard Sunrise. (Sunrise Charters website)

Once satisfied every thing was ship shape, we rode of on our bicycles (that we had taken with us) to do some sight seeing.

The following morning we sailed off to start diving. We dived the following wrecks:

Kronprinz Wilhelm which at 25388 tonnes was one of the biggest warships in the world.

 Konig This was a first generation German dreadnought battleship

Karlsruhe A light cruiser built at Wilhelmshaven in 1916.

  Inverlane A 9000 tonne tanker used as a block shio in Burra Sound.

  Markgraf Built in Bremen, she was launched on 4th June 1913.

  Dresden This 5,531 ton light cruiser was built in Kiel by Howaldtswerke in 1917.

During our stay we also dived Turrets (enormous gun turrets fallen off salvaged wreck), Burra sound (drift dive) & Gutter sound (drift dive for bottles etc).

In the Northern Is. We dived Fresia (twice) & Tomalina.

Land bound places visited included, the Ring of Brogar, the Stones of Stennes the Museums at Stromness & Lyoness, the best fish & chip restaurant in the world on Westray & quite a few different pubs along the way.

There are of course may other places of interest as well as many many other wrecks to visit.

Unfortunately the weather was not as kind to us as usual & we did not get to spend as much time in the Northern Isles as we would have liked.

The visibility was great diving was amazing the islands were magnificent & all had a wonderful week.

The trip was booked for next year whilst we were still on board – a full Hull team this time. I already have 16 names for 12 places so first to me with deposits secure their places. The others will be put on the waiting list in case of drop outs.

Find out about the 2003 Scapa Flow trip.