Harbour News
Whitefish totalled 5400 boxes from 5 Scottish and 7 Anglo Spanish landings. The Scottish fleet continue to scratch out a living at Rockall whilst the Anglo Spanish vessels fish hake and ling along the shelf edge. With some quotas already under threat and prices falling, a number of the Anglo fleet have returned home for a few weeks until the market improves. The Kirkwall registered Viking Monarch currently on charter to Marine Scotland landed a decent shot of monkfish from west coast grounds. Early indications seem to suggest that the monkfish stock is in good order with decent catches being taken at most locations.
The shellfish sector picked away in a period of fairly settled weather, perhaps not for much longer. North Minch prawn grounds are being heavily plundered at the moment by a fleet of powerful twin rig trawlers that would normally operate in the North Sea but have come west due to quota restrictions.
The non fishing sector was very quiet with only the Tall Ship Wylde Swan returning from the final St Kilda voyage and departing the following day for Orkney and on to Hamburg. The 18 day visit by Wylde Swan was a great success with all 170 that ventured to sea having a fantastic time in ideal weather conditions. The ship is currently tied up in Hamburg and will depart for Kiel on the 24th May. Wylde Swan skipper Jurgens Hanekom has indicated that they very much want to return to the village and may well come back later this year and almost certainly next spring for a few weeks. Apparently there is now a harbour Facebook page Ullapool Harbour Trust with hundreds of images from the various voyages to feast your eyes on.
The next exciting visitor to the harbour will be the return of Statsraad Lehmkuhl on the 30th June for a long weekend. Built in 1914 as a training ship for the Norwegian navy the Statsraad is on passage from Dublin to Bergen and will visit Ullapool for 2 days. Plans are in place for an evening ceilidh on the 30th and the ship will be open to the public throughout her stay, see full page advert for further details of the ceilidh and port call.
The Coigach skiff regatta was a fantastic success with great weather and hordes of people coming to support the event. The Sail Trainee burger stall raised £550 towards the cost of sponsoring 78 local youths in 2012. Many thanks to all those that sampled the delights on offer and a big thank you to John Munro butchers and Heather Parlett for giving such a good deal on the burgers and rolls.
After 12 years loyal service Harbour Assistant Danny Ross has moved on to pastures new, we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts and wish him every success for the future. The vacancy will be advertised in the Ullapool News next week; ideally applicants should hold the relevant certificates to include (HGV class 1, forklift / telehandler, VHF, Oilspill, Basic Sea Survival, First Aid, Powerboat plus a sound knowledge of harbour operations).