Ships in the Sound - 4 - Other Working Boats

In this group the Diary includes those ships built for a specific purpose other than carrying cargo or fishing.

Marine Harvest have a number of salmon farms in the Sound and in Loch Sunart, and these are now serviced by a small fleet of ships of a common design. Called 'well boats', they carry young fish out to the nets and fish ready for market to harbour for processing. Owned by Solvtrans, a Norwegian company, all their names begin with 'Ronja', and all are painted alike except Ronja Viking, which has a red hull. Most of the movements of these boats in the Sound is between the farms and Mallaig.

The Harvest Anne is a regular visitor to our waters. Owned by Ferguson Transport, whose trucks are often seen on West Highland roads transporting heavy goods such as timber, she is mainly employed in delivering food to fish farms.

A number of small boats are used for sea life watching, including this one, the Sula Beag, which sails out of Tobermory. The waters of the Sound and the Minch to the north of Ardnamurchan are ideal environments for whales, particularly minke, dolphins, seals, basking sharks, orcas, otters and a wide range of sea birds. The Sula Beag is often to be seen in Bloody Bay, or off Ardmore Point or the Ormsaigbeg shore, but the Diary was very impressed to see her with half-a-dozen passengers on board searching for sea life on the 31st December, with snow on the hills. More about Sula Beag here.

All Scottish and Northern Irish lighthouses, light buoys, and navigation beacons are serviced by the two ships of the Northern Lighthouse Board, the Pharos and Pole Star (pictured). The Pharos has a helicopter landing deck above her bow, from which servicing work on the more inaccessible, such as on Ardmore Point beacon, can be carried out using a small helicopter. The NLB maintains a base for these ships at Oban. More about the NLB's ships here.