Calmac & fog - are they turning into wimps?

Minchsailor said:
Was that the Isle of Lewis, or the Loch Seaforth?
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Ah, that's got me thinking. It may have been the new one, Loch Seaforth (ungainly looking design with its sloping quarter deck). I think it was the Isle of Lewis as it keeps being brought back into service - when the new one is "out of service".
What a debacle - one new/one second-hand engine IIRC.
 
Robert Wilson said:
One day last year I saw the Ullapool-Stornoway ferry heading out past Priest Island into a fearful Southwester. I kid you not, I could see (binoculars) the bows dig right in and the props almost clear the water; then the bows reared up high enough to see clear air below them. It was the displaced spray which caught my eye - six miles out.
How the passengers, crew and cargo withstood it, I know not - but she didn't turn back!
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Yes, done a few trips on the Ullapool Stornoway ferry this year - Hats off to the crew on that route, who certainly work hard to keep to schedule through a lot of weather at times
 
dunedin said:
Calmac used to have a (fearsome?) reputation for proceeding in all weathers to get their hardy passengers to their destinations, in spite of whatever the weather gods threw at them - perhaps a bit late, perhaps a bit shaken up (and minus lunch), but safely and where they wanted to get to. But seems to have changed ?
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It appears nobody on here can answer your question. We haven't the foggiest...
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awol said:
The only time they go to Greenock is to dry-dock! Your geography is mince!
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They did run to Gourock last winter when the 'upgrade' to Weymss Bay was taking place. I say upgrade advisedly. We went for a wee trip to Rothesay today and the pier was still quite shoogly when Corruisk hit it:)

Donald
 
Although this wasnt Calmac way back I think in the late 60s my auntie and her friends got caught out in the Pentland Firth on the Scrabster Stromness Ferry-the boat couldnt get into harbour and had to heave to somewhere with some but not much shelter as I recall.
 
I can remember crossing from Stromness to Scabster in 1967 on the old St. Ola it was horrendous.

Donald
 
A lot of their publicity focusses on customer comfort. They have a different class of passenger, gone are the days of throwing your sheep from the ferry to the flip boat where no pier existed that the ferry could dock.
 
Its partly the ambulance chasers too. if a passenger falls during a rough passage, then the ferry company may well find themselves liable, as they are responsible for passenger safety.

I crossed the chanel on Seastink ferries in some really terrible weather in the 1960s. Its something to be on the boat deck of a ferry looking up at the next wave! Most of the old post war Seastinkers were around 325 - 375ft LOA, much the same as the larger Calmacs, but being pre RORO foot passenger only, they were much lower, usually with the boat deck only 3 -4 decks above the w/l.

Crossing last year from Barra in a gale the ship was barely rolling, but one of the crew told me they would be unlikely to make the returning crossing because of 'passenger safety issues'. I wonder how Brittany ferries cope with that issue on the Santander/Bilbao run across Biscay, when it is sometimes nearly impossible to move safely round the ship?
 
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