Diary of a Deckhand

The bow of the boat surges through the turbulent waters, dipping the name boards some 10 feet up on the bow in the foaming angry water. Passing through the Pentland Firth always scares me, and this trip re-affirms quite why.

Leaving the mirror calm waters of Scapa Flow at 2am we aim to catch the tide through rather than fight it all the way. Cold sterile clean light begins in the east and soon shapes and islands loom from the inky blackness. Rounding the bottom of South Ronaldsay and the gentle swell lulls us into a false sense of security, but soon enough we are bouncing like a bucking bronco. Divers stagger out of their beds to feed the fish over the railings and i play catch in the galley as things go hurtling past.

Gradually the sea flattens and we cruise northwards towards Copinsay eventually dropping anchor in Holm Sound keeping us out of the worst of the swell. As we enter the bay beside the churchill barriers Hazel spots large dorsal fins break the surface. The unusual shaped heads and large fins have me scrambling for the identification sheet and find that they are a pod of Risso's Dolphins - three mature animals pootling around no doubt looking for something tasty to munch on.







All the gear for a 60m dive