The work goes on

Two pieces of sheet steel arrived last night, the main one pictured is
going to be welded in place on the hull to replace the bent bit. In
the background you can see the steel sections that are going to become
the frames and beams inside the visor.
This is a photo of the Hebridean Isles that has come down from up
North to replace us on the Mull service. Unfortunately they haven't
had their troubles to seek today as her visor is out of action.
Hopefully the Mull drivers are good at reversing on or off, and that
they can get it fixed soon.

At Oban, Nos. 2 RoRo berth

Port bow with section cut away

The section of damaged plate.

Looking down onto the foc'stle head

The repair team turned up last night and started this morning to
repair the damage to the hull. It made me quite nostalgic hearing the
Polish accents of the guys carrying out the work who have come from a
firm in Aberdeen.
A scaffolding has been erected to hang over the side of the bow and a
platform is in place to allow the men access to the outside of the
hull at the point of the damage. This is the comparatively easy bit,
now onto the repair. The new steel is scheduled to arrive tonight and
will then be fabricated to fit and then of course fitted which will be
tricky.
The damage is to the lifting visor so the team are working in quite a
confined space inside. On the outside the overhang of the bow and
having to work over the water makes life difficult there. None of
this helped by the Oban weather which overnight turned to steady rain
and a stiff south westerly breeze.
We would normally have been on our way to Colonsay this afternoon
after a 7:00 am Mull run, but our replacement is doing sterling service
for us and keeping the Island folk in bread, milk and gin.

Events

Wintry weather here on the West coast. We were on our way back to
Oban and the wind was pretty strong particularly in the squalls.
In Oban we have to turn 90 degrees on and slide sideways onto the
berth which today put the ship side on to the wind. Just as we turned
a squall came through and caught the bow sending the ship hurtling in
towards the quay wall. Despite dropping the anchor and using the full
bow thrusters off we came in with a real thump. The port bow caught
the edge of the gangway structure and the lower part of the visor, on
the bow, compressed the rubber fendering completely in so that the
ship's side came in contact with the concrete structure holding the
fender. You can see the bit in the photo.
Then we bounced off moved back a bit and came back in again to strike
the gangway a second time bending the actual brow itself that the
passengers walk on board on.
We cancelled all our other sailings for the afternoon and the
Hebridean Isles, another Calmac ferry is making her way down here
tonight from Stornoway to pick up our service in the morning.
A surveyor from Lloyds has been on board and we appear to be OK to
sail on the late night run. Tomorrow the MCA, Company men and repair
people are turning up to look at what needs to be done and ask
questions no doubt. Sometimes being a junior officer has its merits.

More fun pics.

Gender machine

I think it's quite funny.

Birthday boy.

Another year older today, I celebrate the day with the Queen who came to the throne some 60 years ago on the death of her father King George VI.  He unfortunately died at the relatively early age of 56 which coincidentally is the same as I have attained today.  My Mum assures me that he was a heavy smoker.

Thanks to Julie for her great presents, she is very perceptive and my subtle hints were clearly noted.  The blue foam Muggi holds 4 mugs snugly, keeping them warm and upright when we are sailing along.  The AeroPress is apparently the ultimate coffee maker being a rather ingenious way of pushing water through coffee grounds and into the waiting mug.  If you care to go to AeroPress you can see the details. 

The long way home

Some of my regular readers may recall that on the advice of a friend I diverted my route to Greenock to go via the Erskine Bridge, to avoid roadworks at the airport.  Unfortunately due to two other roadworks encountered around the bridge I ended up going completely out of my way and ended up being diverted via the airport and twenty minutes late. Today's experience turned out to be similar.

My last day on board and heading back home to Glasgow, one of my shipmates suggested that I accompany him in his car as company for the trip.  I happily accepted and then slightly regretted it when we were on our way as rather than dropping me off near the flat, like the bus, he said he would drop me off on the South side near Ibrox Underground and I could get the tube back.  No matter it was a pleasant journey back in the glorious sunshine and we arrived in good time at Ibrox, I considered that I might see the bus going past on my way back to the flat.  I bid my farewells and boarded a tube train for the short,  4 stops 5 minutes, trip back.  The tube train left Govan and headed down under the River Clyde when we stopped at the bottom of the slope, as I was later to find this is called the "Sump".  Nothing much happened and minutes went by until a very large man in a reflective waistcoat, who we later found out was Joe the driver (see pic.) , came out of the cab and announced that "it had chucked it!"  For those of you out with Glasgow this translates as " the train has been subject to a serious mechanical failure".

Not much more information was forthcoming from Joe and the lady opposite became concerned about our proximity to the River Clyde directly above our heads.  I assured her that it seemed really unlikely that we would drown but she didn't seem comforted, then a male passenger started to get unsettled that another train would come down the tunnel and run into us.  Fortunately at this point an off duty employee of the underground, who was travelling as a passenger, came into the carriage and assured him that couldn't happen.  I was reminded of the programme from last night about the sinking of the Concordia when the stewardess was telling the passengers that everything was under control and that they should return to their cabins. Though today I would have had more confidence in Captain Schettino than Joe who was now going up and down the carriages looking more concerned at each pass. 

As there was no noise we could overhear Joe speaking to the Controller, that it had definitely "chucked it" and we were going to try going backwards up the hill to return to Govan.  We started off really slowly and got slower and slower until we stopped, then shortly afterwards the lights all went out.  This as we found out, was to allow maintenance personnel to walk down the tunnel with the live rail disconnected.  The emergency lighting had then come on and more time past until Joe announced we were going to go back down the hill to the "Sump" and get a good run at getting into the station.  Some of the passengers were getting a tad agitated as we could see the lights of the station up ahead but we weren't allowed to walk out on the track and get out, and I don't believe that anyone really felt that going back down the track with the train and having a run at it was a brilliant idea.

Upshot of all this was that we didn't go back down to the sump for a slingshot run, the engineers that turned up seemed to know how to use a big screwdriver to override something and we set off to Govan station at a fair old lick.  We were duly decanted onto the station and I caught a train round the long way back to the West End, a mere hour and a half later than the bus!

Of interest was the reaction of my fellow passengers to the event.  Without sufficient information from an authoritative source people will fill in the gaps and unfortunately that usually means that they will be imagining the worst case scenario. Keep your customers informed with accurate and frequent announcements when things start to go all wrong.

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.

No ferries today from Oban

We made it across to Mull this morning at 8:00 but due to the storm surge and it coinciding with high water we couldn't use our forward ramp to discharge the vehicles due to the height of the tide. This meant turning the ship around and putting the stern in, it is configured differently from the forward ramp, so it was usable.  It meant some of the bigger vehicles having to back all the way ashore, but they did get there.  The wind was coming round to the West all the time and increasing in strength, as forecast.  The first photo shows the view from the bridge on the way back, about a Force 10, wind at about 50 knots.  Now we are pinned alongside in Oban with 50 to 60 knots of wind on the beam and the ship banging away against the pier, see the second photo.  No more sailings from Oban, or nearly anywhere else on the West coast for the rest of today.  This has got to be one of the windiest months for a long time, this storm is due to peter out tonight before, hopefully dying down and we can have a gentle step into the New Year.  

Back to normal

For the first time since I joined the ship last week, today finds us back on our normal schedule. Until now we have either been sailing up from the Clyde, following a holiday timetable or indeed been on holiday. Routine on here is the norm, and it is reasonable to say that the crew are far more comfortable with the familiar and predictable. There is an expression for those of us that have been on this service for a year or more as becoming "Mullified", embarrassingly I must admit to having joined this set. I know when to appear and where to stand to the minute and the inch. One of the deck crew was most perturbed when ordered to move from his normal standby station at the bow to work down aft on the poop when we had some new men on board.

Earlier in the month I had an interview for a 2nd Mates position that had become available in the fleet; unfortunately I wasn't successful in my application. I have the opportunity to get feedback from the company, so I'll probably take them up on that to see where I can improve or went wrong on the day. Jobs are becoming difficult to find at the moment so I am grateful for the work that I do have here with my schedule laid out until the end of 2012.

Weather today was OK, well for this part of the world, tomorrow promises to be a real stormer with a forecast up to Force 11, winds in excess of 60 knots maybe. I hope that you aren't aiming to go to Colonsay.  

Thanks to the cook

We had a very restful Christmas Day.  Thank you very much to "Fitzy" or John the cook on board for all his work on the day.  It was great to sit down to a fully prepared meal and not to need to wash up afterwards.  We are slowly fading away to small mountains with the amount of food that we had at lunchtime and just in case we got hungry later in the day the mess room table was groaning under the buffet that was left out for the evening.  

Weather wise there was no concession to Christmas Day.  Wind and rain all the way but so mild, 12.6 C today, not winter at all.

Hope that everyone had as good a day as we did.

It's not a real one

Christmas Spirit

Decorations are now up in my cabin and in our mess room.

Home again from the Garvel

Hebridean Princess with Isle of Mull in background

Stern section with Greenock Ocean Terminal and the hills covered in snow

In the dock looking forward to the bow thrusters.

Bow thrusters

Starboard stabiliser fin in stowed position.

Twin propellers and rudders

Variable pitch propeller 

Becker rudder, note the extra flap at the back to increase the effectiveness of the  rudder.

I'm not long home from the ship, left high and dry in the dry dock at
Greenock. The work has started in earnest now and the ship is slowly
but surely being taken apart by small teams of men in dirty boiler
suits and quilted jackets.
Some of the main jobs are the painting of the hull above and below the
waterline. This year the hull is being hydrowashed from amdships to
forward to take off all of the old paint and go right back to the bare
metal of the hull. The ship in the dock with us is the Hebridian
Princess which has undergone the same treatment overall, you can see
the brown rust on the hull. Apparently this is necessary to key in the primer
coat of paint.
Hardly ideal weather conditions to do any work with frequent snow
showers and icy winds, but what can you do in December?

Good to be in Greenock

Well we made it to here but it was a rough old passage down here to Greenock from Oban.  There was a gale of wind which is OK, but alongside it was a high westerly swell that hit us on the beam once we were clear of Islay and heading for the Mull of Kintyre.  The ship's motion was pretty awful and then about 4 in the morning we took one seriously large roll of 30 degrees or more and the decision was made to head towards Ireland to ease the pain and damage.  Fortunately this paid off and the motion came back to tolerable, we stayed on this course for an hour then turned due East and surfed our way in towards the sheltered waters of the Firth of Clyde.  

Here we are alongside in James Watt Dock ready for our training exercise tomorrow and then into the dry dock itself late afternoon.  We will be sharing the dock with and ex Calmac vessel the Hebridian Princes formally the Columba.  Snow on the hills all around and temperatures down to freezing, so it should be fun splashing about.

Heading for the Clyde tonight

We have one more run to do across and back to Mull and then this evening we are heading off at 20:30 for Greenock, on the Clyde.  James Watt Dock to be exact, we were there earlier in the year at the Marina with Tarawa.  We are aiming to arrive about midday to suit the tide and will be tied up there till Monday evening when we transfer to the Dry Dock next door and we dry out to sit on the blocks.

Before that we are carrying out an emergency evacuation drill on Monday morning.  This will involve inflating one of the liferafts and the MES, (Marine evacuation system) which consists of a slide and floating platform and then as many of us as can be rounded up sliding down into the wet platform and boarding the liferaft. It is for our own good so hopefully it all works well.

So dear reader while you are snuggled up in your bed tonight think about us heading round Cape Horn, sorry Mull of Kintyre, into the snow and wind.  Winter has arrived now with a thump

Holiday snaps

If you care to go to Jamaica then you can see a mess of photos from our recent holiday out west.  The photos are rather higgly di piggly as the latest way of displaying photos doesn't seem to allow me to edit or order them in any way, so apologies for that.

Spectacular fireworks

Earlier in the year Oban had a fireworks display for Guy Fawkes night,
unfortunately due to a technical hitch the whole display went up in
one minute rather than the 20 that was the intention. Youtube at
http://goo.gl/hI5Xf

Tonight we were treated to another amazing display from the Northern
Lighthouse Boards quay which as well as being fantastic went on for
about 10 minutes. Well done to all those involved.

I have never seen fireworks fired into the air which then carry on
firing even when they are floating in the water.

Close call

It has been a spectacularly bad spell of weather yesterday and today.  Heavy rain with a South Westerly gale all day, fortunately the berths are sheltered at Oban and Craignure from this direction, so we have continued running. With the heavy rain the visibility is quite limited and of course at this time of year it is still dark at 8 in the morning.  We were coming into Oban Bay at about 7:30, the seas had been high and the rain was still coming down hard.  I was leaving the stabiliser fins out to the last minute before the narrow entrance.  The port one wasn't for coming in so we slowed right down and kept in to the starboard side to let the engineers sort things out.  We came into the Bay and just after turning towards the berth a small steel hulled fishing boat passed down the port side, it had broken free from its mooring and was drifting quickly across towards the North shore.  No one had seen it in the dark as it had no lights and looked low in the water.  A minute or two earlier and we would have probably hit it square on, if hadn't been for the slow down on the approach it could have been a bad start to the day.

We have continued to run all day, most of the other services are off now, not a good day for travelling anywhere though.

So much wind

Not long back and there are 3 of the shipping forecast areas with
Force 12 Hurricane winds forecast. Well we kept going today though
the last run was touch and go, always seems to be much worse when it
gets dark.

Clouds

Some concern this morning that a few clouds have appeared in the normally blue skies. Not to worry though, it is still 30 C in the shade and the water is warm.

Toilets

The hotel being all inclusive means we can drink, eat and burn ourselves to a crisp without restraint. Due to our lack of will power we are over indulging and may need a lengthy detox on return to the Dear Green Place.
When one is tired after a couple of rums it can be confusing deciding which is the Gents by the signs. Can you work out which one this is?

Out west

Day three of our visit to Jamaica, lots of sun, rum and swimming. A photo of Julie at the breakfast bar, palm trees, pool and a Trade Wind blowing in of the sea. It is an amazing place.

Off on our hols.

Bye for now folks, we are off to Jamaica for a couple of weeks. I will be making a determined effort to not watch any news or indeed go near an Internet connection.  

Democracy

Horror of horrors, the Greek Prime Minister has proposed a referendum on the bailout package that will impose severe cuts and austerity on the Greek population.  The very suggestion that the people be allowed to determine their own future through the ballot box is anathema to the Bankers and Bureaucrats of Europe.  Democracy, as demonstrated the other day in our own Parliament, is only convenient when it suits those in power.

Politicians got us into this mess, why do they think that they have the solutions to get us out of it?

Rex O'Reilly Lyons - RIP

Today was spent over on the Isle of Bute attending the funeral service of an old friend Rex Lyons.  Rex was never one to embrace the conventional and today was in keeping with his philosophy. The service was held in the Marble Hall of Mount Stuart House, a magnificent setting.  To start we were all treated to a glass of champagne on entering the Hall and were asked to toast his life by his daughter Leyla.

Music and readings finished with the Willie Nelson song, For all the Girls I loved before.  Which if you knew Rex was a very apposite song.

Later we attended at Barone Cemetery at the back of Rothesay to his final resting place.  The world is a slightly poorer place for his passing.