Diary of a Deckhand

Who am I exactly? I never really did a proper introduction, so here you go.....

My name is Helen, and I am 27 years old. A bit short and rather well padded, with short blonde hair and some rather gruesome ear and facial piercings, a legacy of a misspent youth.

Originally from Northumberland with my parents from West Bromwich near Birmingham, my mother doing various sales jobs and my father being an industrial chemist for many years. They left the rat race to start their own business in 1988.

Northumberland is very like Orkney, a rural community with all the plusses and minuses this brings. Northumberland is a truly beautiful county, with untouched beaches, lonely hillsides and woodlands silent except for the birds. It is much more population centre based than Orkney, obviously it is not a crofting landscape as Orkney is.

I lived in a small village called Lesbury where my parents ran the tiny village shop and post office. Living in such a rural place I did the usual thing for a girl to do, which was become obsessed by horses. Eventually this wore off, and I moved on to kayaking and general watersports where I finally became an instructor in 1998.

I went to the local schools where I did ok and left to go to University in Newcastle to study Environmental Management where I got a BSc (Hons) in 2001.

I moved in with my then long term partner to a little house in the same street as my parents who have now retired. First working at the local vets, then at a boat builders and finally as a “Knights Quest” employee for Alnwick Castle. The best part of this job was doing the Harry Potter tours, where you dressed up in robes, had a spell book, a broomstick and even a golden snitch. During the busy periods you would be talking to up to 250 people. Lets just say I learned to project my voice very well very quickly!

The cascade at the top of the Alnwick Garden (taken by me, honest!)

One of the water features in the Alnwick Garden




Throughout everything since I left university my one true passion remained diving. Being introduced to the sport a week before my final exams as a ploy to keep me sane, it hooked me and has never let go. No matter what job I did, it suddenly struck me that I was simply working to pay for the diving. A friend of mine Chris Hall was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2005 and I saw him for the last time in January 2006. Chris passed away in May 2006, less than a year from diagnosis. At that point I had yet to confirm my decision to move to Orkney, but seeing his reaction to my plans made it so clear I needed to start being happy in what I did. No point in being miserable to pay for the things you enjoy is there.

Chris and Liz


Hazel who ran the Stormdrift out of Stromness was looking for crew, and I was looking for an escape. Telling my partner I was leaving for what was planned to be 8 months was hard, but somehow he understood. We had been together for 13 years, maybe too long. That summer was a fantastic one. Diving in Scapa Flow is some of the best diving you can possibly hope to do. Working with the BBC to help film a section of “Coast” was excellent fun, as was meeting so many divers in such a short period. After the season I continued to live on board the Stormdrift in a tiny space 6ft long by 3ft wide by 5.5ft high until the weather got so bad I could hardly pull the boat in against the quay to get off in the high winds. I moved in with Kev in a house share which was excellent and got a job in both the Café Bar and in Argo’s Bakery.

Stormdrift


The galley all laid out for breakfast


Over the summer myself and Hazel found that we both worked together so well we could move on from the Stormdrift that Hazel had run for four years. A boat was for sale in Stromness, and eventually we made plans to purchase what is now called the Valkyrie.

Eventually lambing came around and I left Stromness to help with the night shift. Suffolk sheep are big in comparison to many other breeds, but since these are pedigree sheep they are also worth a lot more. Eventually a good number of small woolly things were bouncing around the shed and we could relax a little.

Small mad wooly thing


The Lodge where I live over the winter - the ladders behind it pointing into space are the escape from the deer fields. A very important thing if you are ever in with a stag. Think of something the size of a small cow, with the mentality of a bull armed and dangerous with 17 points per antler who can run at 30mph. I would want a suit of armour and and an armed guard!


Taking the boat to Fraserburgh for a survey and seeing her on the slipway was an interesting one – what had we done! This thing was HUGE! An eventful journey back to Stromness through the Pentland Firth and finally we slip our ropes over the stout black bollards on the pier.

Repairs to the deck

Our stand at the dive show


A long time was spent planning, re planning, faffing, worrying, painting, and generally mucking around with the boat. We had to repair some of the deck, moved the benches around, repainted the saloon, and most importantly added a diver lift. This is a moveable platform which lifts the divers out of the water and up to deck level. A close friend of mine has MS and struggles to walk, therefore this was ideal for keeping him diving as it cuts out having to climb a ladder.



The season started a little shakily, with a near vertical learning curve for the both of us, but after a couple of weeks we had it pretty slick. Needless to say, by the end of the season we were slick as a slick thing on national slick day.

So that’s about it really.

Favourite food – Rob’s green Thai curry mmmm thai curry.
Favourite drink – pear cider
Favourite music – Sigur Ros an icelandic band at the moment, but it changes a lot
Favourite place – diving on the F2 or the UB116.
Diving qualifications to anyone who cares -

BSAC Dive leader which allows to 50m and to take someone unqualified.
IANTD Adv Nitrox - use accelerated deco
TDI Normoxic Trimix - use trimix 18% oxygen to 60m. I lurve helium. It reduces the narcosis whcih is like getting drunk at depth. When you dive deeper than about 25-30m nitrogen becomes toxic and interferes with the brain. It is the equivalent to getting drunk. Someone said for every 10m depth it is like drinking a neat shot of spirit. So, to couteract this we breathe helium which does not give us narcosis - the altering of our brain chemistry to make us feel drunk. Most people use this beyone 50-60m, but i like it shallower than this as its much safer.

In our cylinders on our backs we commonly carry air. Simply air, just as you breathe on the surface. This is compressed into a cylinder and depending on the size, depth and other factors will last anything up to a couple of hours. I personally carry two 12 litre cylinders which will at 20m last me for bl00dy hours. To be safer we sometimes use nitrox which is gas with a higher percentage of oxygen. This cuts down the amount of decompression we need to do but also limits the depth as oxygen is actually toxic if breathed at certain concentrations at depth.

So now you know :o)