Ships in the Sound

No, The Diary didn't go to the South of France to take this picture, it was taken on a beautiful mid-October day during a walk on the hills above Bay McNeill, looking across to the Ardnamurchan Point lighthouse.  The boat was too far away for us to see its name then, and the detail on the picture isn't good enough to record it, but it appears to be a private motor cruiser belonging to a rich man.

In total contrast, here is a good, solid working boat, the Felsted.  She belongs to a small West Highland company called Knox Marine, and they advertise her as a multi-purpose workboat.  An ex-RMAS 24m fleet tender, she has a 35-tonne crane and can undertake anything from the transport of heavy loads to towage or mooring installation.  There's more about her on Knox' website here.

This is the Aasheim, a 5,826-tonne dwt bulk carrier which is different in that, although she's operated by the Norwegian company Aasen Shipping and Chartering, she's registered in Gibraltar.  The photo shows her travelling north with a full cargo of aggregate from the Glensanda quarry on Morvern.  No-one can pretend that there's anything particularly beautiful about these modern cargo ships....

....so here's another one, going in the opposite direction for symmetry.  She's the Fri Ocean, a general cargo ship belonging to  the Kopervik Group, another Norwegian company, which has about twenty vessels in its management, all of which start with Fri which means 'free'.  We see their ships regularly in the Sound, and we almost certainly see more Norwegian cargo ships than we do British.

One of the pleasures of going across to Tobermory on the CalMac ferry on a fine day, along with the chance to see dolphins and whales, is the opportunity to get close-up to some of the shipping moving through the Sound of Mull.  When we crossed towards the end of October, the Maclean brothers' two creel boats, which work out of Tobermory, had just finsihed unloading their catch at Kilchoan's Mingary Pier and were heading home.  This is OB461, Dawn Treader....

....and this is OB560, Jacobite.  They're both sturdy, beautifully maintained boats which go out in all weathers.  Immediately behind her to her left are some of the houses in Ormsaigmore, while those to the right are in Kilchoan.  The high land in the right distance is Meall Chro Bheinn.

The Sound has been relatively empty of boats during the last month, but fishing boats are probably the most common.  This is SO109, the Sligo-registered Vigilant, a pelagic trawler which also uses purse-seine nets, one of a number of Irish boats we've seen passing.

The most recent is S383, Carmona, another Irish boat but this time registered in Skibbereen in Co Cork.  They're all big ships using modern gear and modern methods of fishing, so it's slightly worrying that big, Scottish boats seem to be missing.  Perhaps they fish elsewhere, or perhaps we only see the Irish boats because they're on their way home, or perhaps there just aren't many Scottish boats left.