Ships in the Sound

The regular 'Ships in the Sound' entry on The Diary, much enjoyed by some readers and rather less so by others, is a little curtailed by our absence on holiday, and the ships we have observed have been dominated by naval craft taking part in the Joint Warrior exercise to the north of us - details here - which has now finished.  Of the warships we've seen, we've been surprised by the number that were Belgian, including this one, BNS Godetia, a command and logistical support vessel.

Two Belgian minehunters, the Primula (M924, above) and Lobelia (M921) have also been much in evidence, having been up and down the Sound at least twice, with both of them passing us yesterday heading north.

The Royal Navy has been represented by its usual collection of small mine countermeasures ships.  We have fond memories of the days when we used to see some fine RN ships sail past, including this frigate, HMS Sutherland, which we saw in February 2010.  We've been waiting patiently for one of the new Type 45 destroyers to come our way, but have had to make do with the American USS Mitscher, post here.

The Kingdom of Fife came up the Sound this afternoon in grey, drizzly conditions and a cold wind.  We've seen her before but she's included because The Diary has a liking for those companies which take sufficient pride in their ships to paint them in a distinctive livery and, in the case of Briggs Marine, her owner, also maintain an interesting website showing their ships, here.

The Cemfjord, as her name suggests, is a bulk cement carrier.  However, the 'fjord' bit is deceptive - there's nothing Norwegian about her, her owners are German and she's registered in Cyprus.  Her owners seem to be the opposite of Briggs Marine, it being difficult to find anything out about her - but this may be because the search was in English.

N265 is the Stephanie-M, a big pelagic trawler registered in Newry.  She went down the Sound on 8th October at the same time as N200, Havilah.  They're both good-looking, business-like ships.  We've seen them before and, each time, worried that such large, technically advanced machines are hoovering up all the remaining shoals of mackerel.