Shetlands – day 6

Our final day aboard MV Clasina began with a dive on another klondiker (like the Lunokhods-1 we saw earlier in the week), the Pionersk. This huge fishing factory ship foundered in the 1990s, but is rather shallower than many of the other wrecks we dived. Consequently, it is more kelp encrusted and sadly the vis was rather poor, so I was limited to very close focus photography. The fact that we were so disappointed with the vis on this dive (“normal” UK vis – approx 3-4m) just goes to show how good the visibility had been on the other dives of this trip. Good weather – calm sea and bright light – helps, as does the sandy sea bed under most of the wrecks we saw; however, the lack of large amounts of algae in the water here is a massive help too (many of my shots from this week have a bluish tint, rather than the pea soup we have come to expect in the UK.

Our week aboard Clasina finished on a highlight with a return full circle to the first site we saw – the Fraoch Ban. This marvellously intact and upright wreck on white sand did not disappoint, and we saw angler fish and octopus in addition to the flatfish on the sand, spiny spider crabs on the hull and shoals of small fish around the superstructure we saw last time. A fitting end to an excellent stay aboard MV Clasina.

The dives were finished early, to allow the disembarkation of the mountain of gear which ten divers bring onto a live aboard. Rob and I bade farewell to our buddies from East Cheshire BSAC, as they were on the afternoon ferry. It was a more leisurely end to the day for us, as we had a couple more days left on Shetland.

Links:

<– Shetland day 5

Shetlands – day 5

Divers on the stern of the Gwladmina

On our cruise back south to Lerwick from Unst, our first stop was the Gwladmina, a large Victorian steam ship which sank upright in 38m. Most of the cargo seems to have been recovered and, descending the shot line amidships, we were able to complete a circuit of the ship – bow first and then astern along the exposed prop shaft and then to stern with rudder blown off to salvage the prop.

Our first sight was the Gwladmina’s substantial boiler

Wreckage as we move aft

Deck gear fallen into the wreck, as the tops decayed during their century underwater

Almost to the stern (see top image)

We had time to view the bow as well

Is this what remains of the bosun’s stores, or perhaps the remnants of previous buoylines to the site of Gwladmina?

A brief inspection of the triple expansion steam engine as we return to the shotline for our reluctant ascent to the surface (not forgetting the deco stops…)

The second dive was not a wreck, but a scenic site for a change. The Giant’s Legs is an iconic geological feature at the southern end of Bressay, where the headland has been eroded into a series of broken stacks. Underwater, the terrain consists of series of submerged stacks. We saw many nudibranchs, but I had camera problems and had to return to the boat, before getting back into the water agains. Two dives for the price of one!

Polycera faeroensis munching on the abundant bryozoans

A tiny juvenile scorpion fish hiding amongst the kelp

An impressive Dendronotus frondosus feasting on the bryozoan mat covering the weed

Links:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4

Shetlands – day 3

Another morning, another wreck!. In this case, the Jane, a cargo ship which came to grief in 1927. The wreck lies on its side, with a large propellor and rudder visible. It stands several metres proud of the sea bed but shows signs of collapse in several places.

Our second dive was a drift off Burra Ness, on our way to Balta Sound. The sea bed consisted of maerl and coarse sand with very large undulations caused by the tide. We saw many hermit crabs, one or two nudis and a huge plaice.

The evening saw us in Baltasound, where we chatted to the skipper of the Björn, a gaff Cutter rugged ketch flying the Norwegian flag. In fact the owner was from Iceland and had sailed to Shetland via the Faroes, on his way to Bergen and points south in Norway to overwinter.

We also walked up to Balta Light, the most northerly pub in the UK. In these Covid times, we decided not to stay inside and drank our pints in the surprisingly cold beer garden.

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Baltasound has several other notable landmarks, including the John Peel memorial bus stop (currently sporting a “2020 vision” theme in “honour” of a certain Mr Cummings) and also a memorial to the crew of the WW1 submarine E-49, the site of our dive the next day.

Links:

• Shetland trip day 1
• Shetland trip day 2

Shetlands – day 1

NOTE: I wrote these blog posts at the time of the dive trip, but was not able to post them at the time, so there’s roughly a week’s delay between the date of posting and the day they were written.

The Shetland Islands is a place I have long wanted to visit and I was lucky enough to be invited by my buddy Rob Bailey to join him on a week-long charter aboard the new liveaboard MV Clasina skippered by Bob Anderson.

We arrived in the attractive town of Lerwick first thing this morning off the overnight ferry from Aberdeen, and transferred a small mountain of gear onto Clasina. Rob and I had met our fellow divers on the ferry and, predictably we all got on well – an experienced group from East Cheshire BSAC.

Our shakedown dive was a corker, on a trawler called Fraoch Ban (gaelic for White Heather), a trawler whose internal bulkhead had failed, causing its catch of sandeels to shift, which capsized and sank the boat.

The first thing that struck me was the amount of light. Like many of the best Shetland wreck sites, the Fraoch Ban lies upright on sand, which reflects a lot of light. The visibility was about 15m, which meant we could see from one end of the wreck to the other. A large winch and gantry sit on deck and a large shoal of fish swirls around the site. I spotted a new (to me) species of spider crab and others saw octopus and angler fish.

The second dive was close by at Noss Head, a cliff dropping into the sea with a series of deep gullies. This exposed site has wonderful purple rock formations and many anemones – dahlia, Devonshire cup corals and even patches of jewel anemones.

The surge reduced the visibility but the gullies made for an interesting swim and I was buzzed by a couple of seals – the female coyly checked me out from just beyond camera range and my buddy told that a large male was watching me from behind; as is often the way, I was not even aware he was there.

Link: Shetland trip day 2

Shetlands – day 4

My buddy Rob inspecting the conning tower of E-49

As we pass the halfway point of the trip, this day was a real highlight – a site so good, we dived it twice. This wreck was the E-49, a British WW1 submarine which hit a German mine in March 1917 and tragically was lost with all hands at the mouth of Baltasound. The life of a submariner must have been terrifying and heaven knows what those men experienced when the mine exploded. It is always sobering to visit such war graves and though some feel that these sites should not be dived, I think that these wrecks are a memorial to the bravery of our forebears. What struck me was how small the submarine is; this 55m tube must have been an incredibly cramped place for the 30 crew to live.

She lies upright in 32m on coarse sand, which provides stunning light and visibility. The bow section is blown off and lies a few metres away from the main wreck, which lies mostly buried in the sand. The conning tower is broken off and lies to the port side. The stainless steel periscope is clear to be seen and many other details of the gears which operated the ballast tanks, winches and hydroplanes are visible. The wreck tapers off into the sand, with the propellor just visible.

The bow section, which was blown off by the mine which sank the submarine

Much. of the. external plating has corroded away, revealing the pressure hull

The conning tower has broken off and lies on the sand

looking down the. conning tower

Wonderful to see the. whole wreck spread before us

Reluctantly ascending from the E-49

Having finished our pair of dives, we returned to Baltasound and got a taxi to see the amazing colonies of Skua, Gannet and Fulmar at Herma Ness and which also gave us a marvellous view of the light house at Muckle Flugga. This marks the northernmost reach of both Shetland and the UK. It was amazing to think that the was only the Arctic to the north and the whole of the Atlantic to our west.

Links:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5

Shetlands – day 2

The skipper’s briefing described our first site of the day as “Shetland deep”, in other words 40m, but in clear and calm water. I don’t often venture below 30m because usually there’s not much to photograph. My previous experience of wrecks at depth is that there is too little light to make pleasing images. However, our site this morning – Lunokhods-1 – was worth the depth.

Sunk relatively recently (1993), the Lunokhods-1 is a “klondiker” (factory fishing ship) which dragged its anchor and ran aground in a storm. Consequently, the bulk of the wreck is shallow, but the bow section sheared off and slid down the slope to about 40m.

The skipper put the shot bang on the bow, so we had an ideal dive profile – descending first to maximum depth to admire the view looking back along the bow with the divers visible in silhouette and their probing torch beams picking out details of the wreck. The clarity of the water meant that plenty of light penetrated to the sea bed, as well as providing great visibility.

After this highlight (sadly a short stay), we zig-zagged up the sloping debris field, so that by the time we reached 12m, our decompression commitment was spent. With additional time in the shallows, the safety stops were completed and it was time to send up the SMB and reluctantly return to the surface and the waiting Clasina.

We motored to the Out Skerries for the next dive. This group of small islands is so called not for being remote, but is derived from the Norse word for East.

Our second dive was under the lighthouse on Bound Skerry. The rocks slope steeply into the water and this contour continues under the water. Dropping into the clear water to 20m we followed the wall along to the point looking for crayfish (Palinarus elephas).

Along the way, I found a nice dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) sheltering in wide crack in the rock. After searching for a while in the kelp, we were rewarded by discovering a nice crayfish. Despite the yellow antennae, these impressive clawless crustaceans are surprisingly well camouflaged among the yellow brown kelp and purple rock. This fine individual tolerated both Rob and I taking turns photographing it.

Links:

<– Shetland trip Day 1

Shetland trip Day 3 –>