For a change, this month's 'Ships in the Sound' has a theme - Adventure. So we start off with a ship named after one of the world's great adventurers and explorers - Marco Polo. We've seen the Marco Polo in previous years, the only importance of her visit this year being that, as a special adventure for her passengers, she called at Fort William, one of the first cruise ships to do so. While there's little for tourists to do and see in the Fort itself, the area around it, well within reach for day or half-day trips by coach, is full of interest. For a start, there's Glenfinnan, where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard at the beginning of that great adventure - the '45 rebellion.The Marco Polo, like so many cruise ships that pass in the Sound, is old. She was built in East Germany in 1965 as the Alexandr Pushkin for the Soviet Union Shipping Company, and was used both on the Trans-Atlantic route to Montreal and for cruising.
This is Saga's Quest for Adventure, which carries up to 450 passengers. It seems an appropriate name for a ship catering for the older tourist, the sort for whom a quest for adventure is probably a bit safer than actually finding it. Built in 1981 to a high spec for the German Hadag Cruise Line, she had serious mechanical problems in 2008 before being bought by Saga, who named her Saga Pearl II. Soon after, her name was changed to its present one. Saga's website is here.
The Clipper Adventurer is a polar adventure ship owned by Quark Expeditions. Carrying up to 122 guests, she's even older than Saga's Quest for Adventure, having been built in Yogoslavia in 1975 as the Alla Tarasova. She had a real adventure in 2010 when she grounded in the Arctic - more details here.
The Ocean Nova is another Quark Expeditions ship, but smaller than the Clipper Adventurer, carrying 73 passengers. Both ships are ice-strengthened and cruise in polar regions. The Ocean Nova also had an adventure, this time in bitter Antarctic waters, in February 2009, ending up stranded until refloated by the next high tide - story here. Quark Expeditions' website is here.
Still on the expedition adventure front, this is the National Geographic Explorer, owned by Lindblad Expeditions. They trumpet her as a 'state of the art expedition ship', but in fact she's almost as old as the other adventurous cruise ships, having been built in 1982 as the Midnatsol, later renamed Lyngen. Her website entry is here.
On a much smaller and more local adventure scale, this is the Majestic Line's sturdy Glen Masson, which offers eleven guests cruises along the Scottish west coast. She's seen here passing in very un-Highland weather. More about her and the company here.
This is a ship which has featured often enough before, the Northern Lighthouse Board's Pharos. She spends her life servicing the many lighthouses, beacons and buoys along our coast. The only reason she's included today is that, in this picture, she has a helicopter on board, stowed neatly on a helideck above the bow of the ship - which must considerably reduce the adventures the crew now have compared to the past, when they would have had to land by boat on some very nasty coastlines.
This picture shows just one of many cargo ships which have been plying the Sound in the last month. She's the Arklow Fern, butting into a stiff northwester. In front of her is the Sula Beag, which belongs to SeaWild Scotland, and offers the excitement of whale-watching cruises. She's another old ship, having been built in 1985. More about her here.
Far too many of the yachts which we see in the Sound are using their motors, even in ideal sailing weather. So it's so good to see a yacht heeling to a stiff breeze as she comes powering down the Sound under sail. Now that is REAL adventure.
This is Saga's Quest for Adventure, which carries up to 450 passengers. It seems an appropriate name for a ship catering for the older tourist, the sort for whom a quest for adventure is probably a bit safer than actually finding it. Built in 1981 to a high spec for the German Hadag Cruise Line, she had serious mechanical problems in 2008 before being bought by Saga, who named her Saga Pearl II. Soon after, her name was changed to its present one. Saga's website is here.
The Clipper Adventurer is a polar adventure ship owned by Quark Expeditions. Carrying up to 122 guests, she's even older than Saga's Quest for Adventure, having been built in Yogoslavia in 1975 as the Alla Tarasova. She had a real adventure in 2010 when she grounded in the Arctic - more details here.
The Ocean Nova is another Quark Expeditions ship, but smaller than the Clipper Adventurer, carrying 73 passengers. Both ships are ice-strengthened and cruise in polar regions. The Ocean Nova also had an adventure, this time in bitter Antarctic waters, in February 2009, ending up stranded until refloated by the next high tide - story here. Quark Expeditions' website is here.
Still on the expedition adventure front, this is the National Geographic Explorer, owned by Lindblad Expeditions. They trumpet her as a 'state of the art expedition ship', but in fact she's almost as old as the other adventurous cruise ships, having been built in 1982 as the Midnatsol, later renamed Lyngen. Her website entry is here.
On a much smaller and more local adventure scale, this is the Majestic Line's sturdy Glen Masson, which offers eleven guests cruises along the Scottish west coast. She's seen here passing in very un-Highland weather. More about her and the company here.
This is a ship which has featured often enough before, the Northern Lighthouse Board's Pharos. She spends her life servicing the many lighthouses, beacons and buoys along our coast. The only reason she's included today is that, in this picture, she has a helicopter on board, stowed neatly on a helideck above the bow of the ship - which must considerably reduce the adventures the crew now have compared to the past, when they would have had to land by boat on some very nasty coastlines.
This picture shows just one of many cargo ships which have been plying the Sound in the last month. She's the Arklow Fern, butting into a stiff northwester. In front of her is the Sula Beag, which belongs to SeaWild Scotland, and offers the excitement of whale-watching cruises. She's another old ship, having been built in 1985. More about her here.
Far too many of the yachts which we see in the Sound are using their motors, even in ideal sailing weather. So it's so good to see a yacht heeling to a stiff breeze as she comes powering down the Sound under sail. Now that is REAL adventure.
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