Yachts and cruise ships still sailing into the harbour
LERWICK Harbour remains busy despite a slight tailing off in traffic now that the summer season begins to draw to a close.
There has not been quite so many yachts visiting as in recent weeks but cruise ships are still arriving and oil-related traffic has remained steady.
One interesting yacht which did arrive, however, was the Polar Bear which has been sailing around the north of Norway and then sailed on to Faroe before arriving in Shetland. The yacht is a charter yacht and she had experienced very poor weather conditions before arriving at Lerwick last Wednesday.
The Portuguese-registered cruise ship Funchal arrived for the day last Thursday and on Tuesday the Sea Princess was berthed in Bressay Sound for most of the day.
On Saturday the barge Armour Rock arrived with a load of rocks to begin work on building up the armouring at the new area of reclamation near to the SBS base. The barge is the same one that was used to deliver armouring for the new runway extension at Sumburgh. On Tuesday the barge was joined by another from Norway, the Stema Barge II, also delivering armouring.
Much of the week’s oil-related traffic consisted of regular visitors. Last Thursday the Blizzard, the North Fortune, the Olympic Promoter and the REM Supplier were all berthed at Greenhead. On Saturday the only vessel at Greenhead was the Grampain Contender but she was joined on Sunday by the Olympic Promoter and the Viking Discovery, returning from offshore duties.
On Tuesday the Bahamian-registered Skandi Achiever was berthed at Holmsgarth.
Fishing-related traffic has remained relatively quiet although on Tuesday the Fraserburgh-registered Castlewood towed in the Ocean Dawn, also from Fraserburgh, after her nets became entangled in the propeller.
