Tuesday 24 February 2015

Lysblink Seaways - Day 7 Morning

This was the view across Kilchoan Bay yesterday afternoon, with the Lysblink Seaways turned into a strong southerly breeze.  The promised overnight gale wasn't as bad as forecast though, being a northwesterly, this side of the peninsula is relatively protected.

All the fuel oil is reported now to have been moved into the upper tanks.

This morning we watched the Kingdom of Fife patrolling up and down off Ormsaigbeg, to the west of the Lysblink Seaways, in winds which at times....

....gusted towards gale force and brought heavy hail showers.  As can be seen, the Forth Jouster remains in close attendance to the ship.  Unfortunately, those showers also brought thunder and lightning again, with the result that many internet connections and telephones are down - we can make outgoing calls but can't receive calls.

At half past one today the Herakles, one of HM Coastguard's Emergency Towing Vessels, arrived from Orkney.  She's here because the next stage is to remove most of the fuel from the Lysblink Seaways, which should, hopefully, be happening fairly soon.  Once it's clear, and given a window in this continuingly changeable weather, the ship will be towed away.  If we're lucky, she could finally be away on Thursday.

The Herakles won't be towing her.  A tug is coming from Stavanger in Norway for that.  Rumours persist in the village that the Lysblink Seaways will be scrapped.  One says she's going to India, the other to Turkey.

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