Scotland...Ideas ?

[oldwheels]

Are the ferry companies limiting foot/bike passengers as well as cars?
(I recall hopping on the next available Skye ferry, when they were fully booked for cars).

Foot passengers Oban to Craignure on Mull are advised to book. Passenger numbers are limited and distancing is 1 metre on the ferry.

 

[oldwheels]

Unrelated to social distancing, I saw somebody tweeting the other day that there are currently more pandas in Scotland than there are working Calmac ferries.

So far as I know all the ferries are working. One had to get a new engine from Germany which caused massive delays. Last week it was back in service. A politically malicious post I suspect. That does not mean we do not need new ferries as many of the fleet are getting pretty old.
I remember the old MV Glen Sannox which was said to be only able to go to a third world country it was so bad. It ran from Gills Bay to Orkney for several years afterwards.

 

[Slick]

So far as I know all the ferries are working. One had to get a new engine from Germany which caused massive delays. Last week it was back in service. A politically malicious post I suspect. That does not mean we do not need new ferries as many of the fleet are getting pretty old.
I remember the old MV Glen Sannox which was said to be only able to go to a third world country it was so bad. It ran from Gills Bay to Orkney for several years afterwards.

LOTI?

 

[oldwheels]

LOTI?

Not been on LOTI for a while but it did have the best food in the fleet.
Not aware of any problems as I saw her passing just a couple of days ago.

 

[Slick]

Not been on LOTI for a while but it did have the best food in the fleet.
Not aware of any problems as I saw her passing just a couple of days ago.

I thought she must have been older than Glen Sannox as it was an old boat 20 years ago which was probably the last time I was on it on the Oban to Tiree run probably.

 

[oldwheels]

I thought she must have been older than Glen Sannox as it was an old boat 20 years ago which was probably the last time I was on it on the Oban to Tiree run probably.

I came back from Lochboisdale on LOTI once and I was the only person eating lunch in the cafeteria. There was a great clatter of breaking plates from the kitchen followed by a shout "Yee Ha". Not sure of the date but a guess would be about 20 years ago.
I think there was an earlier Sannox. I remember one memorable run when the anchor had to be used to get off Oban pier and due to swell she made a run round the top of Lismore instead of the direct route. It was winter and pitch dark. We had no idea where we were and seemed to be sailing for hours but in the bar somebody produced a fiddle and a party started so nobody cared very much after a few pints. It was a great anticlimax to have to get off the boat at Craignure. That would have been sometime in the early 1970's.
That sort of thing would not happen nowadays and they just would not even attempt to sail.
I also sailed on the Sannox on the Gills Bay to Orkney route after she was sold. She was renamed Pentelina and once had to get hired back to Calmac. Her certificate limited the number of passengers after dark and they only took large vehicles with driver only. I had my van so got on the first boat Passengers had to travel on a smaller boat which followed close behind.
We just accepted that as one of the penalties of living on an island and nobody seemed to complain much.

 

[Slick]

I came back from Lochboisdale on LOTI once and I was the only person eating lunch in the cafeteria. There was a great clatter of breaking plates from the kitchen followed by a shout "Yee Ha". Not sure of the date but a guess would be about 20 years ago.
I think there was an earlier Sannox. I remember one memorable run when the anchor had to be used to get off Oban pier and due to swell she made a run round the top of Lismore instead of the direct route. It was winter and pitch dark. We had no idea where we were and seemed to be sailing for hours but in the bar somebody produced a fiddle and a party started so nobody cared very much after a few pints. It was a great anticlimax to have to get off the boat at Craignure. That would have been sometime in the early 1970's.
That sort of thing would not happen nowadays and they just would not even attempt to sail.
I also sailed on the Sannox on the Gills Bay to Orkney route after she was sold. She was renamed Pentelina and once had to get hired back to Calmac. Her certificate limited the number of passengers after dark and they only took large vehicles with driver only. I had my van so got on the first boat Passengers had to travel on a smaller boat which followed close behind.
We just accepted that as one of the penalties of living on an island and nobody seemed to complain much.

I remember it well, watching the boat from the pier on Tiree watching the boat trying to manoeuvre in a huge swell after retracting the stabilisers and the crack of the rope snapping as she tried to winch herself in. Best 4 days I ever spent was waiting to get off that island, brilliant.

 

[oldwheels]

I remember it well, watching the boat from the pier on Tiree watching the boat trying to manoeuvre in a huge swell after retracting the stabilisers and the crack of the rope snapping as she tried to winch herself in. Best 4 days I ever spent was waiting to get off that island, brilliant.

My memory is not what it was and got some boats wrong. The original Pentelina was MV Iona and not the Sannox.

 

[snorri]

The original Pentelina was MV Iona and not the Sannox.

The 'Iona' was renamed 'Pentalina B', the original 'Pentalina' served the route in the 70's.

 

[oldwheels]

The 'Iona' was renamed 'Pentalina B', the original 'Pentalina' served the route in the 70's.

My memory of events is quite clear but clearly my memory of names is not. One of the MV Claymore name went to Orkney but I can not find definite reference to it. Somewhere I have a book listing MacBraynes ferries so I will have to search for it in my bourach of bookshelves.

 

[Slick]

My memory of events is quite clear but clearly my memory of names is not. One of the MV Claymore name went to Orkney but I can not find definite reference to it. Somewhere I have a book listing MacBraynes ferries so I will have to search for it in my bourach of bookshelves.

You may have to explain "Bourach" to the wider audience.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Where abouts is it....😁

They find you 😂

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The borders is an off neglected but lovely region

 

[Brandane]

My memory of events is quite clear but clearly my memory of names is not. One of the MV Claymore name went to Orkney but I can not find definite reference to it. Somewhere I have a book listing MacBraynes ferries so I will have to search for it in my bourach of bookshelves.

Information about the original MV Glen Sannox here.
I used to travel on her between Rothesay and Wemyss Bay quite regularly in the 70's. She had an unfortunate habit of making heavy contact with the pier at Rothesay! Then in the late 70's CalMac had the strange idea to convert her into a cruise ship to replace the Queen Mary "2" (as she became, to please Cunard). The aft car deck became a sun deck. Whoever thought that would be a good idea on the Clyde? .
In the late 80's she was sold to Greek owners and ended up based in the Red Sea before coming to grief on a reef near Jeddah in 2000.

 

[oldwheels]

You may have to explain "Bourach" to the wider audience.

I tried looking it up in Google and discovered meanings I had never hear of. The bit about a rope round a cow's legs is probably only local to some areas as I worked on dairy farms in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire and never hear it there.
How about a guddle instead?
Amazing the tangents some threads go off on.