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.