Visit to the lifeboat

Our regular Chief Officer is off with a sore knee and his relief is a local man who also serves as a coxswain on the local lifeboat when he is on leave.  The boat is stored just across the Bay from our berth and Mark took me on a quick tour of their boat house and the boat itself.  Really impressive bit of equipment made to withstand just about anything that the West coast weather can throw at it. As it is the busiest boat in Scotland it is very popular amongst crews as there is every chance of being called out on a shout.

I know I know, enough sunrises

Okay I know that you have seen a hundred sunrises and sunsets before, but as they are such a, almost phenomena up here, I couldn't resist taking this one this morning as we left Oban on our way back to Craignure.  And the other photo is looking out west to Duart Castle and the snow topped mountains of Mull.  

Great weather and this Captain is letting us all have a go and berthing and unberthing which is good fun, as long as we don't break anything that is.

Survivor

As part of our emergency training one of our regular exercises is a man overboard drill.  On our way back from Colonsay, with our four passengers on board, we took the opportunity to throw poor old Bill over the side and do a realistic drill.  Maybe not entirely realistic as it's not everyone who thinks to take an empty 25 L plastic drum with him when he goes on an unintended swim.

Last night you may have watched An Island Parish, a programme on BBC2 about everyday folk on the island of Barra.  One of the individuals featured was Captain Michael McNeil.  He was shown organising a fishing competition on the island where unfortunately he managed to end last and was duly awarded the wooden spoon marked loser.  He was sitting next to me in our Mess Room as we watched as he is on board here relieving for the usual skipper who is on holiday.  On the day they managed to catch nearly a ton of fish which was distributed amongst the assembled islanders and tourists.

Maintaining the lifeline service, at times

I joined the ship last Wednesday and we have been doing our thing to Mull and Colonsay without incident until Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately the old enemy, the weather, then intervened so we didn't manage any of our late Friday sailings and yesterday, Saturday, was a bit of a wash out with only the one round trip then we called off for the rest of the day.  Mull truly became an island as the other ferry service to Lochaline was also called off so there was no way of getting to the mainland.

Not much traffic around at the moment anyway, I guess that this post holiday period is always going to be quiet. 

Across the seas to the Isle of Bute

Wemyss Bay Ferry and Railway Station.

Sunday opened with a crisp blue sky and a plan to utilise my free ferry pass by making a trip across the river to Bute.  We made it for the 12:00 crossing and directed by Ms. TomTom we went on an interesting trip round the back streets of Rothesay before heading off to Kilchattan on the South coast and lunch at the Kingarth Hotel. 

Kingarth Inn

We had a fantastic meal with mussels in a sweet chilli sauce and a smoked fish platter to kick off, before finishing with a couple of steak pies and great big crunchy chips.  I had a couple of pints of real ale to help wash it all down.  Great place, pleasant atmosphere with good friendly service, well worth making the ferry trip across from the mainland.

Keen volunteer rambler on Kilchattan prom.

The weather was a bit on the chilly side, but it stayed dry so we musn’t grumble.  We then took a walk along the sea front at Kilchattan Bay to take in the bracing air, there was plenty of that but not an awful lot else going on.

Lunch out with the chaps

I spent a very pleasant afternoon today in the company of Ian, Walter and the newcomer to the group Brian, Chief Engineer from the Isle of Mull.  On my way to pick up Ian I took the extended scenic route to Langbank via Bowling and Glasgow Airport, thanks to the road repairers.  This was to avoid the roadworks and possible delays at the Airport roadworks. 
After a good lunch at The Point we adjourned to Walter's for coffee and tabnabs. 
Thanks to all for a grand day out.

Roof damage

Back home by bus from Oban yesterday, heavy rain all the way and as well as the many signs of wind damage around about, there was a lot of flooding with all of the burns running white.

Next door to my flat hasn't fared all that well either, two large pieces of lead cladding came off the front of the building on top of dormer windows.  They flew over the top of the roof and landed on the Mews cottage out the back.  One was left dangling on the Mews roof and the other landed in the courtyard.  Roofers came round yesterday and brought down the piece with the white pipe.  As you can see there is some damage to the slates.  Our roof has one slate out, which isn't a big deal but unfortunately the water is coming in where it is missing.  The roofers think it may be a week until they can come round to repair it.

For those of you with a meteorological bent

The photograph shows the barographic trace for the storm that went through yesterday. This shows the change in barometric pressure as the depression passed over the West Coast.

From a gentle breeze to screaming storm

At 08:00 the wind was blowing from the west at about 10 knots.  The barometer started to rise quite rapidly and by 08:15 we were experiencing winds in excess of 80 knots.  You can see the Clansman heeling over in the wind and in the background is the Lord of the Isles tied up on the North Pier, these are photos taken in the sheltered waters of Oban Bay.  Needless to say we aren't sailing anywhere this morning.

Off the scale, almost

Picture of our barograph on board, the barometric pressure is 954 mb. It has dropped 36 mb in 7 hours. This is going to be a big one.

Wonder why it's cold outside.

Two of my fellow deck officers standing amongst the hail stones on deck.  Contemplating the empty car park and the prospect of having to go back to work post Hogmanay.  Happy New Year everyone.