Weather heralds return of pleasure boats

Yacht masts have once again begun appearing in Lerwick Harbour this week, heralding the imminent and welcome approach of the summer months.

A trio of yachts, the single-crewed UK boat Wild Rose which arrived from Fair Isle on Sunday, the Norwegian-registered Zilja and the worryingly-titled Aberration, in from Stromness, have arrived over the past seven days. The pontoons which sit alongside Victoria Pier every year for the yachts’ convenience are to be rolled out early next week.

That apart, it has been a fairly quiet week in the harbour. Belgian-registered tug boat the Union Diamond came into the Greenhead Base on Monday to take the H302 barge back out to the Hutton field to undertake decommissioning work and was scheduled to return again yesterday.

Pilot boat the Knab had a busy time of it on Tuesday, being called out to the south entrance of the harbour three times in 12 hours to assist the Petronordic and Petroatlantic oil tankers.