Celtic Spirit

The Celtic Spirit came up the Sound during the mid-afternoon, butting into a stiff northwester which brought a haze across the sea. Registered in the Bahamas, she was built in 1979, and is 2,978 tonnes gross, with a deadweight of 4,001 tonnes. She's owned by the Willie Group, a Welsh company based in Cardiff, and her main trade seems to be with the Baltic, sometimes carrying timber homebound. She left Liverpool yesterday bound for Tallinn in Estonia.

We've seen her before so she tends to use the Sound rather than sail west of Mull. That ships prefer to use the passages through the Lesser Isles, either because it makes a shorter journey or because it's calmer, is one of the reasons why HM Coastguard keep a large tug permanently on station in this area. The Anglian Prince (photograph here) is on duty in these waters at the moment: she's underway, southwest of Ullapool.

The Celtic Spirit had need of the duty tug back in December 2005 when, on her way south to Warren Point in Northern Ireland, her cargo shifted and she developed a 10 degree list to starboard. She was escorted into Stornoway where the cargo was trimmed.