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Fleet Features Isle of Mull - A Trip to the
Clyde...
ISLE OF MULL IN SERVICE ON THE CLYDE
For
almost 20 years the Isle of Mull has served the island with which she
shares her name, continually plying back and forth between Oban; Gateway
to the Isles and Craignure. In addition to sailings to Mull, when she
was first introduced she was called on to serve Colonsay three times a
week as well. With a capacity of around 80 cars and 1000 passengers,
Isle of Mull was ideally suited to the routes for which she was built to
serve, however as with almost all other vessels in the fleet, she has
seen service on a number of other routes.
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At her launch in 1987
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Arriving in Oban in 1988
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Lying at the Railway Pier in Oban
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After a few months of service, Isle
of Mull was sent to the Tees Dockyard to be sliced in half and to have a
new section of hull inserted before being welded back together. This
prepared her for more seasons on the Mull run, however soon after she
spread her wings and saw service on the company's most northern route -
the exposed crossing from Ullapool to Stornoway. The Mod was being held
on Lewis and her high passenger certificate was required to cope with
passenger numbers. The Suilven, in a very rare deviation from the Minch,
came south to maintain the link to Craignure for ten days. |
It was to be
almost 2 decades though before Isle of Mull was to see any relief
service on the Clyde. Her only visits there prior to 2007 were for
annual overhauls at Garvel, or for repairs like those to her bow visor
in early 2005. Not until December 2007 did Isle of Mull enter public
service on a Clyde route; from Ardrossan to Brodick to allow regular
Arran ferry Caledonian Isles to go off to Garvel for her own overhaul.
Firth though, she had to spend the
best part of 3 weeks in JWD and Garvel drydock as part of her own refit.
She called in at Gourock on a glorious autumn morning in early November
and posed for the cameras as numerous members of our forum congregated
nearby (although none of us knew who everyone else was until the photos
appeared online over the following days!)
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Arriving at
Gourock to deposit crew cars
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Preparing to
leave Gourock and move to JWD |
Reversing
into JWD entrance at Greenock |
Isle of Mull spent 9 days in the
dry dock and emerged on 21st November. Her overhaul then took another
week or so to complete and she then moved to Gourock to collect her
crew's vehicles before sailing down to Ardrossan on 29th November. At
1920 on that evening she entered service on the Clyde for the first
time, taking over from the Caledonian Isles. Unfortunately this spell of
service coincided with a spell of particularly awful weather. She had
been in charge of the Arran run for less than 48 hours before she
suffered her first disruption. Saturday 1st December saw the first of
numerous unplanned visits to Gourock.
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Passing
McInroy's Point while diverting to Gourock |
Passing
Jupiter off Gourock while returning to Brodick |
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Fortunately there
were at least some calm days during Isle of Mull's stint as relief Arran
ferry, and she was able to get in to Ardrossan every so often. Monday
3rd December was one such day and SoC took a day trip over to Arran to
get rare pictures of Isle of Mull there. Some of the photos from that
day are shown below.
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Off Ardrossan in unusually calm conditions
Lying at Brodick linkspan
Returning to
Brodick as the sun comes out
Unloading at
Ardrossan once again
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Berthing at
Ardrossan linkspan
Leaving Brodick
Back at
Brodick
Setting out
for Brodick once more
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In the Sound
of Islay, en route back to Oban |
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Caledonian Isles was back in Ardrossan on 17th December and returned to
service two days later. Thus ended Isle of Mull's brief stint as a Clyde
ferry and she left Ardrossan early on the morning of the 19th. After
passing through the North Channel she made for Islay's south eastern
corner before entering the Sound of Islay. Once again we were lucky
enough to have some guys out in the field with cameras at the ready as she came past Port Askaig.
The tide had just turned and she slowed right down as she passed by and
pressed on towards Colonsay and Oban.
And so it was that
Isle of Mull returned to her normal life as Craignure ferry just in time
for the busy festive period. Sadly though, due to her numerous
diversions to Gourock in the three weeks she was on the Clyde, it is
likely that Clansman will be assigned to Arran on relief in future
instead.
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VESSEL PROFILE |
Isle
of Mull |
