Harbour busy with sheltering oil rig boats
A combination of poor weather and the run-up to the summer months made for a busy week at Lerwick Harbour.
On Wednesday the Belgian tug President Hubert, currently undertaking decommissioning work in the North West Hutton field, called at the Green Head base to collect stores.
Also working there, the barge H-302 was towed in by the Union Diamond, another Belgian tug, on Thursday. Earlier that morning the sail training ship Swan arrived.
Friday was a fairly quiet day, with the British fisheries protection boat Jura calling in briefly and the first of two chase boats, the Marja from Sierra Leone, arriving for shelter.
A further three vessels arrived in preparation of the poor weather. The Far Sapphire, Far Scout and Island Valiant are three Norwegian anchor handlers working on the John Shaw rig, which sheltered in the harbour on Saturday.
The British tanker Border Heather arrived at the North Ness Jetty on Sunday with a cargo of oil while the Bahamanian-registered Norsund called with a shipment of sand at the Dales Voe Base before sailing on to Ayr.
The second of the chase boats, the Panamanian Marianne G, also arrived on Sunday. She will be working alongside the Marja with the seismic vessel the Ramford Vanguard, which is yet to arrive.
Another seismic vessel from the Bahamas, the Fugro Mercator, arrived on Monday to shelter, as did the dive support vessel Seawell, which came back in on Tuesday with an injured man.
As summer approaches the first of the yachts have started to arrive. On Saturday three came in, the Norwegians Limavest and Visaya II, from Stavanger and Bergen respectively, and the Dutch Bastaert van Campen.
Sunday saw the arrival of the Norwegian Apollon and on Monday he Swedish yacht Sandvita came in.
