BLUEMOMENT

Timber from Belfast to Sweden ??

Coals to Newcastle?

At least there's plenty of reserve buoyancy

Graeme

It came from Fort Bill according to it's AIS info which still doesn't explain what it was doing right over against the Mull shore just a mile from Calve Island. Some kind of gear failure presumably - if they weren't all drunk or asleep.

What is it with these timber-carrying coasters - they're either bumping into the Farne Islands or motoring into the Isle of Mull..

As we passed this incident this morning the coastguard was acting as translator between the broad Scots of the lifeboat radio operator and the pidgeon English of the Russian(?) radio hack who couldn't understand each other.

I think that he said "the pilot ladder is on the port side for you" etc.

Hope it all turned out OK.

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Well, it's no longer aground. According to AIS data it got off the rocks then headed out of the Sound of Mull North of Tobermory before doing a u-turn and heading back down the Sound.

It is currently a few miles South of Tobermory doing 4.5kts towards a stated destinaton of Oban with the lifeboat in close attendance.

Entirely off topic, but sparked by your AIS picture: I didn't know there was a ferry from Drimnin to Kilchoan. One would have thought that if Drimnin justifies a ferry then Tobermory would have been a more logical destination, but what do I know?

DaveS wrote:Entirely off topic, but sparked by your AIS picture: I didn't know there was a ferry from Drimnin to Kilchoan. One would have thought that if Drimnin justifies a ferry then Tobermory would have been a more logical destination, but what do I know?

I think it is a once a week service by Ardnamurchan Charters : http://www.west-scotland-marine.com/Kilchoan-Ferry.html

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The MV Fri Ocean is now anchored in Oban Bay off Kerrera, with a workboat (divers?) in attendance. She does not appear to be listing.

Maybe shes parked on the spot recently vacated.....

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Here's a cracking picture of her 'parked' with two hours to go to low water:

Great picture! How big is the "local magnetic anomaly" stated on the charts at that point?

Regards,

Alastair

BlowingOldBoots wrote:Great picture! How big is the "local magnetic anomaly" stated on the charts at that point?

Regards,

Alastair

I don't know Alastair, but I don't think the primary nav aid on modern freighters is a magnetic compass, and imagine the insurers would take a dim view of that excuse.

Well, in fairness, Masters of all vessels do need something to blame when things don't go according to plan. So why not a compass, particularly one that is adversely affected by local magnetic anomalies.....and rocks and things?

We passsed her at 1515 or so on Friday



- which I think will have been around LW. Quite a sight, the LB was in attendance but lying on her port side so not visible in the picture. When we got into Oban on Saturday afternoon she was as in Nick's picture, looking sheepish rather than seriously damaged.

claymore wrote:Well, in fairness, Masters of all vessels do need something to blame when things don't go according to plan. So why not a compass, particularly one that is adversely affected by local magnetic anomalies.....and rocks and things?

It's not like in a car, where a distraction, can leave precious little time to make a correction e.g. passing a bus stop full of lovely girls on a sunny day on Byres Road when driving a motorbike and looking back at the road to find that the bus in front has actually stopped.

So, I do wonder, it must have been a pretty spectacular distraction to have allowed the vessel to wander off to the side. My old Neco autopilot works off a magnetic compass, it was pretty scottish excrement until I worked out that the kedge chain stored in the same locker wasn't exactly helping. I doubt they are using anything of Neco vintage.

The Navionics chart thingy on my iPhone says that variation is increased at the area, so the reference compass could have swung to a new heading and the ship steered the other way. This would make sense with westerly variation as it would increase the magnetic bearing on the reference compass. The ship would then steer to port to bring the magnetic bearing back to the desired heading, which is now the wrong ground track. Anyway, its just a thought, as Nick says, a compass is not likely to be involved with where the auto pilot gets its reference from i.e. most likely a GPS system.

Alastair