Casualty in Oban Bay

Apologies again for the quality but this is another of the three or so
boats being towed back to safety after breaking free from its mooring.

No sailings today folks

Anyone living in the West coast will know about the storms here today.  We managed a couple of sailings and got a bit scared coming back in on the last one from Craignure where the wind was up to a force 9.  It has just been decided that all sailings for the day are cancelled and we will resume in the morning.  We took over three coach loads of tourists this morning who were scheduled to return on the 17:00, not sure where they will stay as the Lochaline service to Mull is also off so there is no other way to leave the island tonight.

There are 23 of the Cal Mac services disrupted today, which is probably not that unusual for January and February, but May!

We have been looking across the bay to Kerrera Island Marina and the yacht Drum, owned by Arnold Clark has broken free of her moorings and ended up on the beach.  One of the workboats here in the bay has gone across to drag her off but I think they are doing more damage than good as she is now high and dry, lying at about 45 degrees over on her starboard side and this tug is trying to pull her away.  Even if they do get her off there may be damage to the hull that will cause her to flood and possibly sink.  Daft.

New vessel and the old enemy

The forecast for the day was spot on, the afternoon was brought in with stronger winds up to a gale by the end of the afternoon and then back to normal this evening.  Tomorrow is another depression, how well named, that is promising up to a Force 10 in the inshore forecast so we, along with most of the fleet are on amber alert.  This means that there is a good chance that sailings will be disrupted or cancelled.

The latest edition to the fleet M/V Finlaggan, arrived in the UK today and berthed at the North Pier here in Oban.  I didn't go on board but I gather it is quite luxurious inside.  Apologies for the rather poor photos, my iPhone does lots of good things but taking pictures isn't one of them.  Can't say the new ship has much in the way of character but then what do we expect?  I'm sure that it will be very pragmatic and carry lots of vehicles easily with good facilities for the passengers.  

We had a few complaining yesterday about the lack of room when they are parked on the vehicle deck.  I agree with them there is very little room between cars when we have a full load on board, to the extent we have to get all the passengers out first before parking the car with only the driver still in.  When the ship was built 24 years ago the lane widths were more than adequate for the size of car, nowadays, as anyone who has parked in a older car park will know, cars are far bigger.  It brings it home to you when you see something like a Morris Minor that was on yesterday, just how small cars used to be.

Only 2 and a bit days to go and I'll be heading off home. The time flies by, well sometimes it does.

Snow on the Mull hills

At 8 this morning, on our first run, I can see the white hills. Skiing season not over yet.

Day to day

Dear Readers.  Apologies for the lack of blogs since I joined a week or so ago.  It is a common complaint from my fellow officers on here that when they call home there is little to discuss about the day to day goings on aboard "Daisy".

I could tell you about the hundreds of bus passengers that we had today, some of which had been kitted out with orange baseball caps so that their guide could keep them in tow.  I was amused by the man who had perched his on top of his flat cap.  

The old friend, the weather is always a useful standby, and today was the best day since I joined.  Sunshine and showers but mainly sunshine so that was great, it certainly cheers you up.

The days pass quickly enough for sure, with so little time between ports there is no time to hang about to have our meals and get the planned maintenance done.  Well, we are getting a lot of people from one place to another on time and safely.  Craignure's gangway is now up and running so that has made life a lot easier.  Back home on Wednesday and then back on the water on Tarawa.

Statistics

Yesterday, Saturday the ship crossed the waters between Mull and Oban 13 times, covering 113 miles.  We carried 588 vehicles and 2907 passengers, running up to 37 minutes late at one point.  Pretty busy old day, still no gangway at the Mull end so all the foot passengers had to disembark through the vehicle deck.  This means we can't load any cars until the last passenger is clear which can take quite a while, hence the delays.  Still lots of heavy showers during the day, it would be good to have a day without rain, but I think that may be wishful thinking!  

Continued career

I joined the ship at lunchtime and we resumed the stately progression between Oban & Craignure, 100's of coach passengers doing day trips to Mull.

I have been asked to stay on here as the "permanent" third officer until October or November, hence the inverted commas.  I guess that nowadays 11 months work is pretty secure, anyway I have accepted the offer so I will be getting to know the waters around here quite well.

Trip's end

Tomorrow sees the end of my two weeks on board.  As ever I have learnt more about the trade and how the ship works.  Certainly I am a lot more confident about the job, in particular the loading of the car deck.  I find this to be the hardest part of the work as the navigation to and fro isn't too challenging, other than when the odd yacht or fishing boat launches itself at you on the way past.

I have loaded a few near or maximum cargoes in the last few days and it is quite satisfying when it comes together and everything gets squeezed in with the ship upright and of a reasonable trim.  The "lift" cars with their elderly occupants near the lift, the dangerous goods separated and no wasted space on the deck so that we were able to take all of the standby vehicles across.  Oh and on time as well.

Hopefully I'll be getting my own boat in the water soon and then I can keep you up to date with visits to ports other than Oban and Craignure.  

Sailing pals!

With the sun breaking out over the weekend a few of my yacht colleagues have been appearing.  I was overtaking one this afternoon on the way back to Oban, he was going to pass well clear down the starboard side when he came about and came across the bow passing a couple of hundred yards ahead of me. I would have altered round his stern but we were just at Lismore and Lady Rock.  I noticed he was looking up at me a lot as we slipped round his stern.  B****y yotties.

Off on the Tour de Mull

Tidal waters

Our passage between Craignure and Oban takes us past the very South
end of Lismore Island with its lighthouse and Lady Rock a distance of
about ¼ mile or less. The tidal range, that is the difference in
height between high and low water, isn't that great around here, it is
about 3 metres at the moment being spring tides and it goes down to
about a metre at neaps.
Despite the small range of tide the mainland and islands around this
part of the world cause this flow of water to be crammed into narrow
sounds and firths. This results in strong tidal currents, the most
famous around these parts being Corryvreckan which has its whirlpools
due to the nature of the seabed and the very strong tidal flow between
the islands at that point.
The waters around Lismore also have strong currents which we have to
take into account when steering our course to pass safely between the
Island and the rocks. I hope that you can see from the attached photo
of our GPS plotter two arrows, the blue shows the way the ship is
pointing and the red shows the actual course being made over the
ground. As you can see if you don't keep a good eye on the way the
ship is moving through the water then you would easily be swept up
onto the rocks. The strange thing is that at you approach the gap the
direction of the current goes right round so initially you are
steering one way to counteract the current then the other. As the
current hits the bow it actually makes the ship roll and swerve off
suddenly, not bad considering we weigh about 2,500 tons.

Aaargh!

Rain of Biblical proportions this morning, there was waterfalls coming down the side of the hill that I had never seen before.  In amongst this deluge I was in charge of loading up the car deck at Craignure, unfortunately the young lady on the shore's walkie talkie had become waterlogged & I couldn't make out what she was telling me about the vehicles ashore for loading.  I'd had a look and didn't think there was anything to worry about.

With just three trucks to load you will have to imagine my consternation when the third to last truck came down onto the ship and it had a trailer on the back making it about 21m long.  It came to a stop once it was a far as it would go with the trailer nicely blocking the entrance.  There was plenty of room on board but the two remaining trucks couldn't access it.  Fortunately the driver of the truck was able to back up and I had to call all the vehicle drivers back down to do a bit of shuffle about.  About 15 minutes late on departure combined with the gales and we never caught up with the timetable again.  Woops.  Everyone says that it has happened to them too.

Forgetful passengers

In the last couple of days we have had some notable & slightly strange events.  Yesterday a man was in his car about to leave the ship when he pulled over, I enquired what was the matter and he said he had lost his wife.  He waited a moment or two and then she duly arrived and off they went.  Another husband and wife, she somehow got locked in and he was outside the car, I wasn't there but somehow she eventually got out and they stomped off, clearly not talking. 

When we depart all drivers have to leave their vehicles and go into the passenger accommodation, before locking the car deck we do a check to make sure that no one is still in their car.  Walking along the line of cars today I came upon a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser with the ignition keys in place, and the engine still running.  

Every so often someone drives on and then forgets that they brought their car and gets off at the other end as a foot passenger leaving the car behind.

I find it quite encouraging that I'm no worse than many.

Scurrilous news

Should you oh reader peruse other publications, then you may have noticed in today's Daily Record there is a wee article about the CalMac ghost ships http://goo.gl/NDtQn  Apparently this may be true, that up to 800 trips in December were empty of vehicles or passengers, this is across the fleet of 22 vessels.  

Clearly this does not apply in the case of my present vessel the Isle of Mull that provides a vitally essential lifeline service to the good folk of Mull, many hundreds of them today.  We have carried out 14 crossings today with hundreds of passengers and vehicles, on time too despite the weather.  On the other hand I wouldn't be able to say the same for the good folks of Colonsay.

I don't know where the journalist who wrote the article got the figures from, but I wonder who in the head office, for that must be where they came from or the Government, leaked the statistics?  

Windy old day

It really does rain a lot here, serious organised got it together water coming down in torrents at 05:45 this morning.  A bit snoozy as the ship's generator broke down at midnight which made the emergency generator above my head click in automatically.  Not to sure what went wrong, but then neither are the engineers.

Day went well but then the wind got up and we spent a couple of hours alongside at Craignure pinned on the berth by a Force 8 coming down the Sound of Mull.  Back on again at 15:00 when the weather had improved.  Saw the Queen's sometimes passenger ship the Hebridean Princess at anchor in the Sound.  We had a coach load of German tourists on board telling us about their rough old trip across to Iona with the spray coming over all, amazed that they made it all.

Hitting the deck running

Off at the crack this morning to join the ship, well 8:40  seemed like the crack of dawn after three weeks off.  The bus driver had clearly taken time out from his Formula 1 career as we flew along up and down the hills, here's a hint it's best to get any reading over and done by Inverary, onward from there holding on takes priority due to the twisty road. 

Raining stair rods in Oban when we arrived, it keeps the dust down apparently.  Joined the ship on time and off we went back and forwards to Mull without much time to draw breath really.  Some complicated loads with large trucks and buses to take back from Mull, there are a regular stream of tar trucks going back and forward each weighing 30 odd tons when full.  Then the earlier drizzle and rain disappeared and the sun came out, which was great with the brown hills shining in the moisture.  We are spending the night alongside in Craignure tonight, the reason being that there is no berth available in Oban due to all of the Cal Mac boats around this evening.  Earlier in the day it was a bit of a traffic jam with three vessels arriving and departing at the same time.

7 round trips tomorrow, starting at 6:45 through to 19:45 back into Oban.  This is the way it'll be from now on this summer.

This is a picture of the ship's anemometer from yesterday, it is showing a reading of well over 80 knots, which includes the ship's speed, so the gust was over 70 knots.  We moan about the weather but when I see the pictures from Japan today, I can only be thankful for the little inconvenience that we suffer here with a gale of wind.

The Placid Waters of the Firth of Lorn.

Here's a photo taken through the bridge window on our way over to Mull. Our instruments showed a gust of 87 knots which includes 14 knots of ship speed so over 70 knots anyway. All the sailings bar this one were cancelled today. I'm on a bus now on my way home, looking forward to a beer.

Snow and tempest

Bumpy old night alongside in Oban now that the wind has gone round to the West.  Woke to snow on all the surrounding hills with a bitter wind coming down the Sound of Mull.  The high pressure area has disappeared and we are now back into a run of North Atlantic depressions, familiar territory for those of us who live here on the West coast.

We had a very successful day yesterday, carrying a thousand or so passengers and hundreds of vehicles over the 12 hours we were running our vital lifeline service.  Wednesday is changeover day so a number of the officers are off, but not myself who is staying on for a further day to allow my relief to attend an interview for promotion within the Company.

The inshore forecast is up to a Storm Force 10 for later today, all from the west or southwest. We are scheduled to visit Colonsay so we'll have to see how it goes.  The pier there is quite sheltered from that direction but you have to get there first!

Redemption

I was pleased to load the vessel up at Craignure this morning with a full cargo of vehicles.  We got all the booked and then managed to squeeze in the last 9 stand by cars so we sailed with 54 cars and about 7 commercial vehicles, could have taken on three or four more actually, so a new goal to pursue.

Nice run to Colonsay today, a new record there as well 11 vehicles going onto the island.  I brought her back going inside the Garvellaches and getting the benefit of the Great Race so we had about 3 knots of tide with us as one point.  All tied up for the night now at 5, unfortunately night on board for me so no shore leave.

I am staying on an extra day going home on Thursday evening now, after we have been out to Coll and Tiree again.  Early starts all round.