Ships in the Sound

The Yeoman Brook is one of the four huge bulk carriers which are used to distribute around Europe the aggregate quarried at Glensanda quarry. She's the one we seem to see least - not counting the Yeoman Bontrup which suffered severe fire damage while loading at Glensanda back in July 2010. She's seen here in ballast heading south down the Sound.

This is the Arklow Freedom, one of Arklow Shipping's very smart boats. We've seen another of this company's ships, the Arklow Ranger, a couple of times recently. The Freedom is seen here earlier this month butting into a swell which is coming in from the west and being funnelled into the Sound.

The Highland Pioneer passed today. She's a 2,500dwt offshore supply ship owned by Gulfmark Offshore. She's described as carrying materials for oil drilling such as pipes and mud, but when she passed here she looked as if she was carrying blades for wind turbines. Back in 2000 she was involved in a collision with a jack-up accommodation rig in Liverpool Bay; at the time 79 people were on the platform. There's a brief report of the incident here.

This is CalMac's ferry the Lochnevis which usually does the Mallaig-Small Isles route, travelling south down the Sound on 9th October. She was probably going south for her annual service as CalMac had warned that there would be disruption on that route between the 10th and the 24th. More about her, and a better picture, on CalMac's site here.

This neat little ship is the Quest, a small expedition ship run by a Swedish company called PolarQuest. They specialise in adventurous trips to the Arctic and Antarctic. She passed us no less than three times within a few days, which seemed slightly strange - unless they thought that the Sound of Mull was an exotic as the polar regions. More about the company and its ships here.