Busy week with reefers, oil vessels and pelagic boats

The usual mixture of general cargo, oil-related and fishing vessels came and went at Lerwick Harbour this week.

The lighthouse tender Pole Star made two visits prior to the weekend, while last Friday the tanker Thames Fisher delivered gas oil for bunkers to the Greenhead base.

The large Norwegian reefers Silver Horn and Silver Ocean arrived on Saturday and after loading fish at the Shetland Catch factory sailed to St Petersburg and Stettin respectively. Another reefer, the Alma, followed on on Monday, and she left again on Wednesday night.

The fishery protection boat Hirta also arrived on Monday, staying for 24 hours for a crew change and to take on supplies.

Five oil rig supply boats came in last Friday, some for a crew change and others to work with cargo at the Greenhead base. The very large Cayman Island-registered Caledonian Vanguard supply boat arrived from the rig Transocean Rather on Tuesday and sailed to the Miller field.

On Wednesday the British stand-by boat Vos Trader was seen at Holmsgarth, making her monthly visit to Lerwick for fuel and a crew change after spending four weeks on guard duty at the Dunlin oil platform.

There were also various pelagic arrivals, landing mackerel at the Shetland Catch factory. The Altaire dropped a net off for repair last week en route to land fish in Norway, and was in again on Monday to collect it. The Research also made a brief visit on Wednesday for a net repair.