THE PLACE
The Orkney Islands is located in Scotland above the Loch Ness monster's home and is quite a place for scenery and history. The town of Burray was small, with very nice people and scenery.

THE DIVESHOP
The dive shop (European technical dive center at Burray, Scotland) was more than helpful in every way from setting up the trip to providing equipment that was needed and then some. (One diver in the group left a plate for the backpack in the USA.)

THE SHIPS
The battle of Jutland in May 1916 was the only major naval engagement where true battleships played a major part in the battle. After the war, the German fleet was brought to Scapa Flow for internment. The German fleet was scuttled and salvaged at Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands). Some of the remaining ships that are now in the bay include, the battleships, Markgraf, Konig, Prinz Wilhelm, and the cruisers, Brummer, Karlsruhe, Dresden, and Koln. These war ships make very interesting diving.

Due to the size of the battleship (s) it is not possible to see the whole ship (s) on one dive. The diving was great. I had one lousy dive because of visibility (3 feet). The visibility in the bay ran anywhere from 6 to 30 feet.

THE DIVE BOAT

The skipper and crew helped, as we needed it. There was much socializing between dive sites, the boat (Crombie) was very well equipped and the area below deck was heated for equipment drying and storage.

THE HOTEL
The sands hotel was right on the harbor front. The apartment was spotless and comfortable with all the comforts of home. The restaurant serves a variety of meals. I definitely would include the meals in the dive package. This was not your average dive resort, definitely a cut above.

THE PLANE
Loganair airways let my camera housing packed in a bag fall to the ground. They say that because it's a fragile package they cannot accept liability. Guess what airline I will not fly on in the future.

THE SUMMARY
The bottom line is the trip was great. There are truly few places in the world that you can dive a group of battleships.

More information on Scapa Flow can be found here