At the end of October, we have had two named storms, and a not quite storm (which was every bit as wild as the storms) in the last week. For the first time anyone can remember, the Lochnevis left Mallaig on Monday 26th October, couldn’t dock in Armadale and had to bring her passengers back to Mallaig! We are now on the winter ferry timetable, so both the Coruisk and the Loch Bhrusda have left for the season, and the Lord of the Isles is operating to and from Oban until 23rd November, leaving us with only the Lochnevis operating from Mallaig at the moment.
On Saturday 24th October, in the midst of Storm Boelo, the Harbour Master was alerted to the fact that the fishing vessel ‘Elegance’ had snapped her ropes and swing round from her berth, hitting the Eloise Eslea, which was berthed in the ferry berth. The Harbour Master made his way down, along with two members of the lifeboat crew locally, Ross McKay and Kevin McDonell. With some borrowed ropes and Pimmy in the forklift, they were able to rescue the boat, get the Eloise Eslea manoeuvred out of the berth she was in and get the Elegance tied up safely along this berth. Mid way through, the Coastguard arrived on scene to provide safety cover. We are grateful to Ross and Kevin, and to the Coastguard for coming out at 11pm on a Saturday night, in a storm, to support the Harbour staff.
The wild weather was exacerbated by high tides, and while there was no impact on Harbour infrastructure on Saturday night / Sunday morning, the direction of the wind on Monday night/Tuesday morning (in the not quite storm), meant that we came down on Tuesday morning to more cleaning up. The road around behind the hall at West Bay was closed due to both rocks and the bottle bins blocking it; and the road round to the feed shed from the oil tanks was completely flooded by spray from the high tide! At high tide, both the RNLI pontoon and the passenger access pontoon were above the pier!
The stormy weather also resulted in some additional visitors at the pontoons, including three ‘crew transfer’ RIBs making their way south from a contract on Skye, who have had a longer stopover than they anticipated. Although the Marina is officially closed for the season, Millie has stayed on to support Chris with maintenance, with the intention that she will take over from Chris when he retires next year.
Work is continuing on Jary’s Wharf, with another concrete pour happening as I write this. Although the work has been more challenging than originally anticipated, Aberdeen Marine have continued to persevere with it. We have had to disconnect the shore power to the fish pier for a couple of weeks to enable them to move the cabling out of the way of one of the piles that needs repaired, so none of the shore power pillars on the fish pier are operational at the moment. We are delighted that we have been awarded funding from Marine Fund Scotland towards the project. We have been awarded a total of £304,125.75 towards the £811k costs. Although we have been aware of this for several weeks, we had to wait for an official announcement from the government before being allowed to share the news.
Mallaig Community Council had organised a meeting with representatives of CalMac and Transport Scotland, which took place on 26th October. This gave us the chance to show off the completed overnight ferry berth to Chris Wilcock and Alison Irvine of Transport Scotland, and to talk to them about what is still required in terms of ferry infrastructure. Although there are no ferries to use the berth at the moment, there were still two Aquaculture vessels alongside it, so it was good to be able to show Transport Scotland the difference that it has made for us.
Although the Aquaculture side has ramped up a bit again towards the end of the month, we have had a quieter period throughout the end of September and beginning of October, with no well boats, and the FSV Scotia away for maintenance for a period. However, the FSV Scotia is now back, along with the Aqua Vikness, and the Ronja Commander has been transferring smolts, so the Outer Harbour is looking busier again. The feed shed has not quietened down any throughout this period, and between the storms and the Havilah having a break for an engine repair, last week I had a new respect for the work that Audrey and Simon do in keeping track of it all!
I have been invited to give evidence at a Transport Committee in the Scottish Parliament on 18th November, alongside Transport Scotland, CMAL, CalMac, the Scottish Ports Group and the Scottish Collaboration of Transport Specialists. The committee will be examining whether ports and harbours are fit for purpose, whether they can accommodate existing and future ferry vessels, the investment required to upgrade infrastructure, and the respective responsibilities of organisations involved in planning, funding, and maintaining the network. Although I spoke on land reform at the European Parliament many years ago, this will be the first time I have ever spoken at the Scottish Parliament!
I was also asked to do a presentation at the ‘Lochaber Partnering for Progress’ event, which took place in Mallaig and Morar Community Centre on 5th November. I will share some highlights from this next month.
Jacqueline McDonell