This is the Raasay at 7.50am this morning. She's the smaller of the two CalMac ferries which sail the Kilchoan- Tobermory route across the Sound of Mull. The service is now on its winter timetable - all CalMac timetables, along with other useful information about local services such the the Kilchoan-Fort William bus and the Corran Ferry, are on the West Ardnamurchan News & Information site, here.
For the last ten days this ship has been busy in the Sound. She's pictured here just off Kilchoan Bay on the 21st October, when we first saw her, but....
....she's been seen off Camas nan Geall and....
....this morning early she was moving slowly westwards off Bloody Bay at the north end of Mull.She's the Icebeam, a high-tech deep-water survey ship registered in Goteborg, Sweden. Not a great deal of information about her is available on the internet, except this site describes how she was employed on a 17th century wreck site in the Baltic Sea in May 2010, and Subsea World News reports her as having been fitted with the latest deep-water echo sounder here.
Does anyone know what she's doing here?
The ship that has been around for the last week or so has been the Seabeam, same colours and I assume a sister ship of the Icebeam which has been working nearer Oban.
ReplyDeleteHi Chris -
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely the Icebeam yesterday morning - she was clearly marked on the AIS. But you're right that the Seabeam is also around, at present she's in Ullapool while Icebeam is in Oban.
http://www.mmt.se/news_113
ReplyDeleteMMT Group/NetSurvey Ltd are performing hydrographic surveys within the Civil Hydrography Programme for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Many thanks, Anonymous, for this information. I have looked at the link you gave.
ReplyDeleteJon
More information on the CHP can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/shipsandcargoes/mcga-shipsregsandguidance/mcga-dqs-hmp-hydrography/the_civil_hydrography_programme.htm
Kind regards,
Arent
Many thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteJon