16th – 29th July (16 arrivals for the period)
Whitefish totalled 1600 boxes from 1 Scottish trawler Ocean Venture and 3 landings from the Anglo Spanish liner Ayr Dawn. The Ocean Venture made a very good landing of squid from Rockall; this fishery is now coming to a close due mainly to the vagaries of market prices. The Anglo fleet are also struggling with great fishing and very poor prices. A number of vessels have taken the option to tie up until things improve. There was very sad news from Spain this week with the engineer on the regular Ullapool vessel Ayr Queen losing both his daughter and her boyfriend in the tragic train derailment in Santiago de Compostela.
Shellfish landings were steady with a few visiting vessels landing prawns. The Stornoway scallop dredger Siarach made a small landing of scallops from local waters and the offshore crabber Heather K made a decent landing after returning from re-fit. The local inshore fleet reported reasonable pickings in settled weather.
The non-fishing sector saw the fish-farm tug Nitrox in for supplies and the Fred Olsen cruise ship Balmoral in for a full day port call. The Balmoral, on a round Britain cruise, is the biggest capacity ship to call in Ullapool with well over 1100 passengers and 510 crew onboard. The village was very busy on a beautiful sunny day, the ship left in the early evening very happy with the Ullapool offer. The intrepid adventurer Alan Rankin returned to Ullapool after a singlehanded sail around Britain and Ireland on his trimarang Trade Winds. Raising money for various charities Alan took 6 weeks to complete the voyage and described the welcome he received in Ullapool as making the trip truly memorable. There is still time to donate at www.soloroundbritain.com/charities
Tall Ship News
The Wylde Swan is heading back to Ullapool and should be alongside next Monday evening 5th August ready for a series of west coast adventure voyages. We are delighted to report that all trips are virtually fully booked with over 200 folk taking up the opportunity of some fine sailing on this magnificent ship. Ullapool Harbour Trust has sponsored 4 local trainees to travel to St Kilda accompanied by a group of Stornoway High School trainees and a day sail has also been organised for 38 lucky 2nd year pupils from Ullapool High School on 17th August.
Scrap Metal Amnesty
Once again Ullapool High School has plans to compete in the Greenpower electric car challenge in 2013, qualifying round at Aintree and hopefully the national final at Goodwood. The home-built supercar Insane Bolt requires further modifications plus additional funds are required for the 2 trips south. Ullapool Harbour Trust collected almost £3000 for the project in 2012 by selling scrap metal kindly donated by local businesses and the community. If you have any old scrap getting under your feet please ring the harbour office to arrange collection on 01854 612724. Many thanks in anticipation