News from Mallaig Harbour: August 2019
This has been a month of learning the ropes for me, meetingpeople and trying to understand everything that’s going on, and how it all fitstogether!
I’m lucky to have a great view from my office window, and there’sbeen a lot of activity outside the office this month as Knoydart Constructionhave the contract to build a new Hydro Electric scheme on the Barisdale Estateon Loch Hourn, so Milligan Transport have been taking all the requiredequipment in by sea from Mallaig.
The Marina has been busy, and we have two new staffsupporting Chris – Courtney is managing the Shore Base, and Michael is coveringdays off for the summer season.
The warm weather has meant lots of demand on the ice plant –we’ve been working at capacity some days, but we continue to have issues withthe IT side of things, so haven’t been able to fully automate the plantyet.
We welcomed another new boat to the harbour this month. The‘Fleur De Lys’ has been bought by Donald Sharman of Mallaig Boatyard Ltd, to beupgraded to provide weekly cruises.
There has again been some disruption to the Cal-Macsailings, with the Lord of the Isles having to fill in for the Isle of Lewisand undertake some unscheduled runs to Barra, meaning that capacity betweenMallaig and Armadale was affected. On the positive side, CalMac have installedtwo new passenger shelters, one for passengers waiting to access the Loch Nevisvia the RO-RO ramp, and another one on the breakwater for those using the Skyeferries. These are designed to protect passengers from the worst of theweather. Thankfully they haven’t been needed much this month!
XOcean are still surveying the coastline this month, so youmay have seen their remotely operated vessel south of Mallaig. It was makingthe most of the good weather last week, and headed back into the harbour at10pm last Thursday, closely followed by its operator on the HarbourTender.
I’ve been reviewing some of the charges, and it has beenagreed that we will increase the cost of an annual parking permit from £50 to£60 with effect from 1st August. This is still great value for moneyat £5 a month, and is the first increase since the charges were implemented. Wehave a waiting list for car parking spaces, so if anyone no longer wants theirsthen please let us know.
Finally for this month, we have set up a Facebook page – www.facebook.com/mallaigharbourso if you are interested in what’s going on, then give us a ‘like’!
Jacqueline McDonell, CEO : info@mallaigharbourauthority.com