Visit to St.Mary's Harbour
[We've struggled with both charging and 3-dongle signal on the islands - so the blog is running behind!]
Being camped on the 'off-island' of St.Martins, we had several trips over on the island ferry to the main Isles of Scilly Island of St.Mary's.
There were many boats to see in and around the harbour - here are some pictures.
Passing the freight Isles of Scilly supply vessel - the Gry Maritha was built in Norway in 1981 and came into service here in 1989. At around 40m (127ft) and 590 gross tons, she provides the islands with all their bulk cargo needs using fuel containers and pallets of cargo
Lyonesse Lady, built 1991, is the inter-island freight vessel.
It has an hydraulic hoist which off-loads pallets and the camping trailers.
It can come stern-end to shore for a roll off ramp for tractors/cars etc
On our way across we sighted the large cruise ship, the Cruise and Maritime Voyagers Magellan, recently commissioned this year at 49000grtons.
It has 1250 passengers - many came ashore to St.Mary's
RNLB Severn Class 17-11 The Whiteheads anchored in the harbour
A view of the Kier Construction platform and diving pontoon.
They are extending the quay for larger vessels
The RMV Scillonian III docked at St.Mary's Quay. Purpose built in 1977 to replace the earlier Isles of Scilly passenger ferry, she has been re-fitted on at least two occasions, the last being in 2012/13 to extend it's 'life' to 2018.
At 233ft and 1255tons, she can carry 600 passengers with 18 crew - uniquely she is designed with a shallow depth at 9.5ft to allow passage at all tides and with a flat bottom can sit on the sand bottom if needed. This makes her unstable in heavy sea conditions and she has fitted a 'Flume' antiroll stabiliser system!
Oh dear!
A fine 2-masted boat - beached for maintenance?
This is one of the half a dozen trip boats that operate from St.Mary's harbour.
We took this out to the Western Isles of Annet to see the puffins and seals.
I think they might be old lifeboats from ocean liners?
A local crabbing/lobster boat comes in to re-fuel and land it's day's catch
There are boats of all shapes and sizes!
Passing a large yacht under mainsail as it heads for Tresco sound
Work done, this fine yacht is back on it's mooring buoy
The two tugs operating the working barge for the new pier.
Here working as evening comes
This coaster vessel came in to dock - there was much activity with loading going on from lorries arriving with heavy haulage bags
Through the night it loaded! It turned out to be the waste from the Isles rubbish tip and recycling. Remember that everything has to come in by sea and then be taken out again.
Here the pair of tugs are moving the working barge - on it's way back to Plymouth to get more pre-cast concrete blocks for the new pier
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