It will be obvious to everyone in Mallaig that the works on the overnight ferry berth are progressing. You can see the crane from almost everywhere within the village! For one week we had two cranes, while one built the other. The crane will be in-situ until mid-December, while the piling works are being undertaken. The contractors have built a temporary platform over the Harbour to enable these piling works. The first stage of filling in the underwater ‘hole’ on the linkspan berth was completed over two nights on the 8th and 9th October. To do this, we had to ask the Coruisk to vacate the berth overnight for these two nights. Unfortunately, this coincided with an issue with one of the Loch Nevis’ Schottel systems, which meant that the Loch Nevis was unable to manoeuvre safely. The Master of the Coruisk deemed that there were no other safe berths in Mallaig or at Armadale, which resulted in the vessel relocating to Craignure for the first evening, and then on to Kennacraig as there were no other available berths for the second evening. This obviously caused disruption to the Mallaig-Armadale service, which was then compounded by the Loch Bhrusda having to be redeployed to the Small Isles service to cover for the Loch Nevis. We didn’t take the decision lightly to ask the Coruisk to vacate the berth, but the dive inspection the week previously had uncovered an issue that had to be resolved as quickly as possible so there was no alternative. CalMac are now operating on their winter timetable, so hopefully there will be less need for disruption to ferry services as a result of the works.
Still on ferries, the AGM of the Sound of Sleat Ferry User’s Group will take place on 12th November. It will be hosted jointly by us in the Harbour Office, and by Sleat Community Trust in their offices on Skye, or you can request a link to join online. The group are still keen to have the wider views of local businesses and the community in general, so that any requests made to CalMac are backed by evidence, and represent the views of people locally. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey, if you are at all impacted by ferry operations. It can be accessed from the following link https://forms.gle/naKm14UNExXidYMX7 or search for ‘Sound of Sleat Ferry Users Group’ on Facebook, and the post with the link to the survey is pinned to the top of the page.
Throughout the works, we are maintaining access to the Outer Harbour for vessels, but we have obviously lost the use of the ‘stub’ pier, where the Loch Bhrusda would normally lie, for the duration. This has meant that, through October, the Bhrusda has been lying where the Loch Fyne would lie. We have had various operations going on, including smolt transfers in the Outer Harbour and a busy period for fish feed, which has resulted in some of the Aquaculture vessels having to use the inner harbour. We’ve had lots of comments on the fact that both the MV Settler, and her ‘twin’ the MV Ocean Aquila were lying alongside one another at the point of the fish pier at various times throughout the month. It is not particularly uncommon for us to have both vessels in the Harbour, but they would normally have had separate berths in the Outer Harbour so it would not be so obvious!
The Marina is now closed for the season. October was a very quiet month, probably as a result of Storm Amy chasing all the remaining yachts south at the start of the month – although we did have a Navy vessel, HMS Biter, in over the weekend of the 18th and 19th October, and we have had a couple of visits from RNLI Lifeboats on passage. Storm Amy also caused a bit of damage to pontoon moorings and chains, so some work will have to be undertaken over the winter months to resolve this.
Coast Construction Management were able to come and repair some of the other damage that was done by the storm, having hired a long-reach cherry picker from Inverness. Unfortunately, it didn’t have quite long enough a reach to replace the canopy on the high tower light that was damaged, so we need a Plan B for this! We’re hoping that we will be able to take advantage of some of the crane works going on as part of the overnight ferry berth to replace the canopy.
We were all saddened this month by the passing of James Hepburn, our Harbour Master’s father-in-law. James managed George Walker and Sons Fish Sales office in Mallaig for many years, at the height of fishing in Mallaig, and had many tales to tell about his time around the Harbour. Allan Henderson delivered a very heartfelt eulogy at the funeral, including some lighter moments, which I suspect will be published elsewhere in West Word. The sympathies of all at Mallaig Harbour Authority go out to James’ family.
Finally, we are looking forward to welcoming the Screen Machine between Monday 10th and Friday 14th November. Films will be screened on Tuesday 11th, Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th. Obviously, RJ McLeod’s compound has taken up the space that we would normally use for the Screen Machine, so we are going to have to put it on the main pier, down by the CalMac marshalling lanes.
Jacqueline McDonell
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