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The Mantis

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32 minutes ago, IBM said:

I have not been on that one.  I think you have been on more ferries than me but I bet you have not sailed on this one!

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No, I’m guessing that was for freight. First went to Shetland in 1980 on the St Clair but I see there have been 5 of them.

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58 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

No, I’m guessing that was for freight. First went to Shetland in 1980 on the St Clair but I see there have been 5 of them.

That was in Lerwick but it was on loan to Cal-Mac for a while doing the night freight sailing from Stornoway to Ullapool at midnight and returning early morning.  I managed to get on the Hascosay with my van one night as there was a storm brewing and I was due to sail home from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis at 07.00 the following morning.  It was a better sailing in rough seas than the Isle of Lewis although there were no services on board you just grabbed a bunk and went to sleep till they woke you up at 3.00 in Ullapool, lucky I always carried a sleeping bag in the van :wink:

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They still speak quite fondly of the Isle of Lewis (1995-2014). When I started going in 77 as a young man, it was the Suilven (1974-1995) which took 3 3/4 hours. Now it's the Loch Seaforth, German-built, which I think is great, but it seems to be fashionable for the Leodhasachs to slag it off. That famous bringer of joy, Brian Wilson, who lives there and whose wife comes from Lewis, started the moaning of course, as it was built on the SNP's watch, and did lots of nit-picking, but mainly because they went with only one boat instead of a separate freight vessel. But they now do up to 3 runs per day, although that doesn't leave much room for error.

Anyway, the Suilven. She was a terrible sea boat as she was bought off the peg from Norway. She was a twin and was intended for the fjords. Kind of flat-bottomed I think. Wonder who Brian Wilson can blame for that. She had berths, which I used only once, from Stornoway. They roused you at 6am or whatever to put your car aboard which kind of defeated the purpose.  She was fitted later with stabilisers which didn't half bang in a swell. She went to the Cook Strait and later was sold to Suva in Fiji where she sank in 2015, thankfully with no casualties. I only seem to have one photo, for all the times I travelled, and it's not a very good one. Here she is, stern-in at Ullapool (it's always bow-in at Stornoway).

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36 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

They still speak quite fondly of the Isle of Lewis (1995-2014). When I started going in 77 as a young man, it was the Suilven (1974-1995) which took 3 3/4 hours. Now it's the Loch Seaforth, German-built, which I think is great, but it seems to be fashionable for the Leodhasachs to slag it off. That famous bringer of joy, Brian Wilson, who lives there and whose wife comes from Lewis, started the moaning of course, as it was built on the SNP's watch, and did lots of nit-picking, but mainly because they went with only one boat instead of a separate freight vessel. But they now do up to 3 runs per day, although that doesn't leave much room for error.

Anyway, the Suilven. She was a terrible sea boat as she was bought off the peg from Norway. She was a twin and was intended for the fjords. Kind of flat-bottomed I think. Wonder who Brian Wilson can blame for that. She had berths, which I used only once, from Stornoway. They roused you at 6am or whatever to put your car aboard which kind of defeated the purpose.  She was fitted later with stabilisers which didn't half bang in a swell. She went to the Cook Strait and later was sold to Suva in Fiji where she sank in 2015, thankfully with no casualties. I only seem to have one photo, for all the times I travelled, and it's not a very good one. Here she is, stern-in at Ullapool (it's always bow-in at Stornoway).

 

 

It was late 1995 when I first traveled to the Western Isles and on my first trip on the Isle of Lewis there was a hell of a clatter every time a wave hit the bow!  I also think the Loch Seaforth (photo below) is a far superior boat which seems to glide through even rough seas although I think they could also do with a freight service as well but it will be down to lack of money.

I was never on the Suilven but heard many stories about it, one from a friend who was a lorry driver and regularly traveled the route who left Stornoway and by the time they reached Loch Broom it was to rough for berthing in Ullapool they sailed back across the minch and it was to rough to berth in Stornoway, after sheltering outside Stornoway for 12 hours they sailed back across the minch to Ullapool and finally berthed after 30 hours :pukeright::pukeleft:

Here is a link of the Suilven when sailing as a freight boat in New Zealand don' look at it if your going to be travelling on a ferry soon!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have never been on that one or this one, another freight boat which was the last on the Stornoway to Ullapool route which was known in Stornoway as 'The Olympic Flame' because it never went out!

 

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26 minutes ago, IBM said:

I have never been on that one or this one, another freight boat which was the last on the Stornoway to Ullapool route which was known in Stornoway as 'The Olympic Flame' because it never went out!

 

? Never actually heard that one before, been going over to Lewis over 40 years. Muirneag is a hill in Ness.

The Suilven had a small lobby in front of the cafeteria where the toilets were, plus a few seats for those feeling a wee bit delicate. One time at Easter I was on my way over and went in for a leak. Lucky there were urinals as both cubicles were occupied by guys spewing up.
I went back out and got chatting to an elderly couple using the seats. The man looked into the toilets occasionally to ask one of the spewers if he was OK. They asked what I was doing and I said I was going over to see Peigi-the-dragon aka the mother in law for a week. When I asked how long they were staying they said they had only got day returns ?
So the guy spewing was going to spend 7 1/2 hours without even going ashore...

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The smallest ferry I have been on.  You collected the keys for the BT Lismore van from Appin Telephone Exchange on arrival on Lismore the van was an old Austin Maestro which did not require a road tax or MOT as it was always left on the island.  The engineers that were doing bigger jobs took their own van from Oban on the larger ferry that sailed only once or twice a week.

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15 hours ago, IBM said:

The smallest ferry I have been on.  You collected the keys for the BT Lismore van from Appin Telephone Exchange on arrival on Lismore the van was an old Austin Maestro which did not require a road tax or MOT as it was always left on the island.  The engineers that were doing bigger jobs took their own van from Oban on the larger ferry that sailed only once or twice a week.

 

Never been to Lismore - almost went last year as we hired a motorhome but we only had it for 3 days. I believe there's a car ferry at one end and a passenger one at the other.

Here's the MV Kilbrannan. Served the Kilbrannan Sound originally, Lochranza to Claonaig, but this is Scalpay, Harris,  Sept 1989, before the bridge was built. Kilbrannan is a bow-loader and went to Aranmore in Ireland in 1992, where she remains to this day, so the internet tells me.

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23 hours ago, IBM said:

Here is an old photo of Loch Brhusda arriving at the old pier North Uist.

 

Just had a look at Wiki and she was designed with a water-jet propulsion instead of propellors as it was so shallow in the Sound of Harris. I'm going to have a rake around for pics tomorrow as I know she started going into Berneray instead after the causeway was built. We took the kids there about 1994 or thereabouts. Meanwhile here is the Loch Bhrusda at Leverburgh in 1996.

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Here is the current ferry approaching Berneray 'Loch Portain'.

When the tides were low you could hear the boat scraping on the sand which you were warned about before sailing and the times were altered for sailings.  It is a good service without having to from Tarbert across to Uig and back across to Lochmaddy which was the only option!  After the road equivalent tariff was introduced which reduced the price to and from the mainland it left this journey much more expensive as it does not work for island to island.

 

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17 hours ago, IBM said:

Where is this one?

 

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Iona from Fionnphort? By coincidence I should be there tomorrow as we’re having a few days in Mull.

According to wiki the Loch Buidhe took over there in 1992. Here’s one of the Morvern in 1989 in superb weather

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6 hours ago, TheMantis said:

Iona from Fionnphort? By coincidence I should be there tomorrow as we’re having a few days in Mull.

According to wiki the Loch Buidhe took over there in 1992. Here’s one of the Morvern in 1989 in superb weather

 

I think it is just you and me that take photos of ferries :lol: I hope you have a good time i was working so did not get to Iona.  if you are going via the Corran Ferry with the drive down through the "Monster Midge" country you will be getting the Loch Linnie.

 

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17 hours ago, IBM said:

I think it is just you and me that take photos of ferries :lol: I hope you have a good time i was working so did not get to Iona.  if you are going via the Corran Ferry with the drive down through the "Monster Midge" country you will be getting the Loch Linnie.

 

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Aye two saddos ?

No we came up yesterday via Oban. Been to Iona today and now we’re back in Balamory looking forward to a few drams. Looks like ICT aren’t getting anything from Ayr ?

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