All at sea

As you can see by the pictures we went on a boat trip on Wednesday.
Catching a ferry from W 34th Street it took us right round the South
end of Manhattan with the skyscrapers of the Financial District, then
up the East River under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. On our
return we diverted out to Liberty and Ellis Islands to view the
statue. Such a lovely day with blue skies and warm winds, I think
that the few clouds are mainly aeroplane vapour trails.

Top of the world

We took the lift to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building last
night. What can you say? Fantastic views all around, little sign of
energy conservation but then it does look great.

On the tourist trail

The day started with a Bagel breakfast, confusing to a Scotsman abroad
under pressure with all the locals around. How do you want the eggs?
Easy, sunny side up, turned. Cheese, yes, what type, Swiss, Cheddar,
Montery Jack, Peppper. The humbling went on so that I ended up with
this enormous plate of protein and a foil wrapped bagel with
everything. Well I didn't need to worry about lunch.
Julie was off to the Conference at the UN and I caught the downtown
tour bus, this took me all the way South to Wall Street and back up
the East side, fantastic. I would recommend this way of getting your
bearings around the city, the guide was very amusing, though I doubt
the German and Norwegian visitors understood much with the fast
delivery. Saying that the locals speak at such a pace I have a
problem at times, or maybe it's just an age thing.
I alighted at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel then walked up to Grand
Central Station. I knew what it looked like from photos but the
reality quite took my breath away. Entry to the building is through
fairly non-descript doors and then you are presented with this amazing
space. Ceiling high windows at either end, which are actually
walkways between the two sides of the station, marble balconies to the
right and left with a vaulted ceiling painted in green with the
constellations painted on in white. In the basement there are a large
number of restaurants and the famous whispering arches, where your
voice is carried across the ceiling of the vault.
In the evening we went on an open top bus tour, the magical tour, of
the city and across the East River to Brooklyn to view the skyscrapers
from the mainland. Fantastic sights and Julie has just about thawed
out from the experience.

Visit to New York

We must be getting less cautious, we arrived at the airport to join
the very back of the check in line for our flight to Newark, everyone
else was there already. Unfortunately today was the day that
Continental was changing over to United Airlines and all check ins
were being done manually. I think that took an hour and then straight
up stairs and one of the last to board, we had been told that we had
great seats, great if you feel that you need to keep an eye on the
wing that is. 8 hours later we are being fingerprinted and
photographed by US Immigration and welcome to America.

The "Super Shuttle", that we booked to take us into Manhattan left a
lot to be desired. It is supposed to leave every 15 minutes but we
were left hanging about for an hour in the airport and stewing in the
bus until it was full plus there was a Dutchman in the back speaking
to a couple of Danish women, and I felt boring for Europe, anyone who
thinks putting leaf spinach into a pan and cooking it is awesome,
needs to get out more.

We are staying in the Manhattan in Times Square, 16th floor with a
great view out onto the streets below. Right in the centre of things,
we went out for a couple of beers in an Celtic bar before having a
lovely Italian meal in a popular restaurant. We were aiming to try
and stay up to avoid the worst of the jet lag but I couldn't keep
going so I think it was about 8pm EST (1am GMT) when we hit the hay.

Today we took a bus tour and walked around Central Park, and guess
what you're only allowed to go anti-clockwise, and everyone does!!
Also smoking is banned in the park, yes no outdoor smoking, can't see
it working in Glasgow.

Back on the road/water again

All repairs completed and passed by surveyors who said that it was a good job.  We picked up the run at 4 this afternoon, did a round trip to Mull where the gangway has broken down, again, and then tied up in Oban for the evening.  Thank you to the Hebridean Isles, our replacement, who headed off south to resume the Islay run.  As you can imagine we are all taking things very cautiously at the moment.

Nearly there

Not too much longer and we'll be back in service again. Friday
afternoon now and this is the last of the welding being completed, a
coat of paint tonight and another one tomorrow morning will cover up
the new work. A surveyor from Lloyds is attending in the morning to
check things out and sign us off to let us carry passengers again.
It's been a long week for everyone.
The weather has taked a turn for the better too with hardly any rain
today, the Polish welders will be looking forward to heading back to
the East Coast.

Good progress

Today sees real progress towards the repair work being completed. The
replacement steel for the shell of the hull is now in place and the
internal work can now be completed. There is a part that requires a
bent piece of steel, not having a rolling mill nearby the application
of heat and a chain block will hopefully make the correct curve.
Clever guys, but I guess they have done this kind of work before.
I have included a picture of the visor in use as it may not be
entirely clear to all of my readers what I'm talking about. I imagine
that it is called a visor because of its similarity to that fitted on
a suit of armour.
It is hoped that the work will be completed on Friday evening, get a
coat of paint and then be checked by a surveyor on Saturday morning.
If all goes to that plan we should be back in service that afternoon.

Work continues

A couple more photos showing how the repair work is coming along.
Since these were taken the steel plate is about to be offered up and
welded in place. Then the strengthing members inside will need to be
welded in.
The repair team estimate two days of welding work which takes us
through to Friday evening then the repair has to be surveyed, hose
tested for water tightness and painted. I think we are looking at
getting back into service by Saturday afternoon at the earliest now,
which will make it a week from the incident.
Still raining here in Oban, hasn't stopped since Monday morning but
mild at 10.5 C

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.