Diving Scapa Flow, Scotland

From May 1 to May 11, I embarked on a whirlwind trip across the pond to the Orkney Islands. It was an absolutely amazing trip both on land and under the sea. We were graced with some pretty good weather (though I could’ve done without all the wind) and the trip had a delightful slow pace to it. Having said that…I’ll post more about the actual adventures later. I keep getting requests for “MORE PHOTOS”…so here you go! I took a LOT of photos, but the best/my favorites are below. Keep in mind these wrecks are HUGE, so in order to get good imagery of the actual wrecks, you’d need better visibility and lighting coordination than we had. BUT under all the critters is a piece of history. Enjoy.

SMS Karlsruhe

Dive Stats: 33 minutes | 85.3ft (max) | 48.5ºF

The SMS Karlsruhe was covered in a lawn of Bristle Stars
Sea stars of all sizes littered the wrecks
These anemones put on quite the show for the divers above and below.
It was hard to choose which anemone to snag a picture of…they were all beautiful!
If you can imagine, that urchin was bigger than two of my fists…the sun stars were HUGE.

SMS Markgraf

Dive Stats: 32 minutes | 128.1ft (max) | 47.9ºF

Ryan between the rudders of the SMS Markgraf.
Peggy amidst the wreckage.
Ryan on the lift (that thing was ACE).

SMS Dresden

Dive Stats: 41 minutes | 101.4ft (max) | 48.1ºF

The first 30ft of water was Caribbean clear!
The Queen Scallops were beautiful and easily spooked (aka they went swimming along!).
Kevin poking around.
Out of focus, but still a cool shot.
Easily one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
If you squint, you can see baby snails!
Beautiful and big!
Lots of places to swim through or poke your head into