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DATE
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NEWS
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30/10/05 |
Loch Tarbert relieved the Isle of Cumbrae on the Tarbert -
Portavadie / Lochranza winter timetable this morning. |
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28/10/05 |
Isle of Lewis is unable to sail
tonight due to adverse weather conditions in the Minch, the Stornoway to
Ullapool sailing at 13:45 and the Ullapool to Stornoway at 17:15 have been
cancelled. |
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25/10/05 |
Lochnevis has left the Garvel Dry Dock and taken her place in the
adjacent James Watt Dock near Lord of the Isles. There are only a few
minor jobs to finish (including painting the word 'Caledonian' in white on
her hull). Lord of the Isles is due in the dry dock in the next few
days. |
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24/10/05 |
Lord of the Isles has arrived in the James Watt Dock, pending her
annual overhaul. She has been carrying out MES (marine escape system) tests
and has had her escape chutes deployed for crew training. Isle of Lewis
is storm bound in Ullapool and did not make the 17:15 sailing. She will sail
from Ullapool tomorrow morning at 04:30. |
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22/10/05 |
Chartered Small Isles relief ferry Ullin of Staffa was involved in
the rescue of two fishermen off Eigg today after they abandoned their
burning fishing boat Kalbarri. The chartered ferry picked the two
crew members up from their inflatable liferaft before they were then
airlifted by the coastguard helicopter to hospital on Skye. Regular Small
Isles ferry Lochnevis is currently out of service undergoing her
annual overhaul.
Loch Linnhe is now lying at Gourock's wires berth having sailed up
this afternoon. It is rumoured that she will be taking over from Isle of
Cumbrae on the winter Tarbert - Portavadie crossing until she goes to
relieve Loch Ranza at Gigha. Presumably Loch Riddon will then
take the Tarbert - Portavadie run. |
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17/10/05 |
Both Juno and Bute are running to normal schedules again this
morning following earlier technical problems. |
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16/10/05 |
Juno was off service for much of today due to a breakdown - she spent
most of the day tied up at Rothesay. She was back in service in time for the
last couple of sailings. The reason for the breakdown is unclear as of yet,
but the usual Sunday morning changeover between the Streakers didn't take
place and the Saturn remains on the Gourock-Dunoon run where she
spent last week. Bute coped manfully on her own during the Juno's
absence. |
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15/10/05 |
Northlink: There have been several
disruptions over the last 2 week in the Northern Isles due the high winds.
The Hamanvoe on the Scrabster Stromness service has missed sailings
while the Hrossey and Hjaltland have both arrived late at
there respective ports of destination.
The NorthLink freight vessel
Hascosay was utilised by the Streamline Shipping Group at the week end
to ship 55x6 metre containers from Kirkwall to Aberdeen. Most of this cargo
was loaded onto the weather deck of the Hascosay which was the result
of Streamline's container ship handling an unusually large oil related cargo
out of the Shetland Isles.
Meanwhile, and breaking news in the North. Irish Ferries (one of
the three bidders tendering for the Northern Isles contract from NorthLink
Ferries) have announced that they no longer have an interest in tendering
for the contract. The exact details of this decision are at present vague.
However this development leaves only two potential invited tenders for the
contract: Caledonian MacBrayne, and V Ships. |
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12/10/05 |
Bruernish is now on the Tobermory - Kilchoan crossing. Raasay
was seen from Lord of the Isles leaving the Sound of Mull and
proceeding round Ardnamurchan Point bound for Mallaig where she is due to
relieve Lochnevis from Friday afternoon. (Picture of Raasay to
be added shortly).
Lord of the Isles made only the outward call at Colonsay this
evening. Upon leaving Port Askaig she returned directly to Oban, her master
giving the poor weather forecast as the reason for no call at Colonsay on
the return leg. |
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09/10/05 |
Heavy weather hit again today forcing Lord of the Isles to abandon
her Coll and Tiree sailing, having made only the outward call at Coll.
Clansman cancelled her afternoon sailing to the Outer Isles and will
instead be sailing at 0530 tomorrow morning. Isle of Mull came off
the Craignure crossing this afternoon to be prepared for a private charter
this evening. The Oban - Craignure sailing was taken by Isle of Arran.
The evening sailing to Colonsay was cancelled although Isle of Arran
will carry out a single journey to Colonsay before continuing on to
Kennacraig tomorrow morning. |
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07/10/05 |
Isle of Arran arrived back in Oban Bay at 0745 this morning having
completed her last relief run for Clansman which returned to service
yesterday. |
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05/10/05 |
The Isle of Lewis was unable to sail this morning due to technical
problems. She later sailed at 14:26, 40 minutes late. |
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04/10/05 |
Northlink: The deadline for completed
tender bids to operate the Northern Isles lifeline ferry service has been
put back by one month. Bids must now be submitted to the Scottish Executive
by December 1st 2005. The initiation of the new contract is however still
set to start from April 1st, 2006. |
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02/10/05 |
Loch Riddon left Gourock wires earlier today and made her way back up
to Largs where she was reported to be lying at the outer berth. Presumably
she will be seeing out the summer timetable as second ferry at Cumbrae,
assisting Loch Alainn at peak times before going off on winter relief
duties again. |
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