Busy week for harbour
A BUSY time at Lerwick Harbour has been dominated by decommissioning-related work and the arrival of 35 visiting yachts in the past seven days.
The 122m H-404 barge was at Alexandra Wharf from last Friday and was towed out to the Hutton Field by the Panama-registered tug Retriever and the Antigua-registered Primus.
Twelve of the yachts were Norwegian-registered, with a further seven from the UK and others from France, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, but arguably the most intriguing visitor was the old-fashioned and unusual-looking Slovakian yacht Victoria (see photo). There were two yachts visiting from further afield, the Gitana and Mahina Tiare III hailing from the USA and the Cook Islands respectively.
There was one cruise liner in Lerwick, the 72m Finland-built Polar Pioneer, which arrived on Monday from Hermaness and set off for the UK mainland via Mousa later that day. She is an ice-strengthened research vessel and was refurbished in St Petersburg in 2000 to provide accommodation for 54 passengers on trips to Antarctica. Her Russian captain and crew specialise in wildlife and diving expeditions using inflatable zodiacs.
Last Wednesday two Norwegian sailing boats, the Anna Rogde and Flokvang, arrived for brief stays from Bergen before setting off for Kirkwall in the evening.
Other visitors to the harbour included Norwegian light cargo ship Fame, which landed cement in the isles before setting sail for Berwick on Tuesday.
The LPA’s tug boats Knab and Kebister were both called into action on Tuesday to facilitate a crew change for the oil tanker Petroatlantic, a regular visitor to these parts which is often seen anchored just outside harbour limits.
WITH the Schiehallion field still out of commission, there were three tankers at Sullom Voe this week, setting sail with a combined total of more than 250,000 tonnes of crude oil.
The Penelop headed for Milford Haven in the south of England last Friday with 90,619 tonnes and the Overseas Fran departed for Portland Maine on the west coast of the USA with 83,131 tonnes later the same day. On Sunday, the Venezuelan tanker Overseas Josefa Camejo sailed for Portland with 82,960 tonnes of crude.
The day before, the Suffolk left Sullom Voe for Brunsbuttel in northern Germany with 8,521 tonnes of liquified petroleum gas (LPG).
