36 arrivals for the period
Whitefish totalled 1400 boxes from 1 Scottish trawler, 3 Anglo Spanish liners and 1 Anglo Spanish netter. The Inverness-registered trawler Adventurer landed a decent shot from the shelf edge with monks and ground-fish the order of the day. The Anglo vessels have started to make a welcome return after working north and landing into Scrabster; the liners continue to land quality hake and ling with the netter concentrating on monkfish and deepwater crabs.
Shellfish landings remain higher than usual with a number of displaced North Sea prawn twin rig trawlers continuing to plunder the Minches, the offshore crabbers landing weekly and the local fleet working away.
Non-fishing accounted for 4 arrivals; the Marine Scotland research vessel Alba na Mara in for a crew change, the NLB service vessel Pole Star a layover, the cruise ship Hebridean Princess for a scheduled overnight visit and the workboat Tie Venture in for the weekend.
This week sees the arrival of the first medium sized cruise liner with MV Discovery arriving at 9:00am Friday 16th for a day visit. Run by Cruise and Maritime Voyages, the Discovery is on a round Britain adventure with 700 passengers and 350 crew onboard. The Hebridean Princess is also scheduled for another visit on Friday so there should be plenty of action pier-side.
Ferry Infrastructure Update
Works continue to progress at pace with preparations for the arrival of the caisson ongoing. Divers have been busy levelling the foundation base and installing scour mats around the rock bund. The existing roundhead has been demolished to allow the contractor to prepare for the installation of the caisson and steel works on the ferry berth fender system continue to be installed between ferry arrivals. The caisson has been floated off the dry-dock floor, checked over by the MCA and is ready for the voyage north with the tug expected to depart sometime later this week. Additional piling has been completed to support the new vessel gangway which is under construction in Spain with a July delivery. The ferry terminal building renovation tenders have been received and a contractor appointed; details of this will be circulated in due course. As with any construction contract there will be issues with noise and once again we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Thanks and congratulations to Joan Michael and the book festival team for delivering another amazing festival weekend. We just don’t know how lucky we are!