Buckie
May 17, 2021
17 May 21. HM 111. We are now entering the "hard" east of Scotland - hard harbours, hard fishermen and a hard sea. I was feeling quite nervous. When I met Darren Bremner he completely put me at my ease. He is HM to six Moray Council harbours - Buckie (his home port), Burghead & Hopeman (see previous post) as well as Findochty, Portknockie & Cullen (see next post).
Darren told me the most unexpected consequence of him becoming HM was that overnight local people in six towns recognised him and said hello! After a career as a Health and Safety expert on oil rigs (he once manned a rig being towed from Cromarty Firth to Brazil) he told me what a great team he works with and how much he enjoys his job.
Built in 1877 by the famous Stevenson family, the harbour had several extensions up to 1912 when the current layout was finalised. The breakwater being solid concrete was the first of its kind in the UK. Photo 4 and 5 are taken from the same spot - the first in 1929 showing some of the 290 "Steam Drifter" fishing boats that worked out of Buckie then, and now, with Good Dog leaving the harbour which has fully diversified to include ship building, wind farm maintenance and general cargo.
I investigated one ship, the LYRIKA, which was bringing a 2,000t cargo of locally grown barley, back from Ipswich where it had been "malted" and was now ready to be turned into one of the famous Speyside whiskys. Built in Holland in 1994 the Lyrika is Lithuanian owned, Russian skippered and Ukrainian crewed (luckily they all seemed to get on very well - photo 7!). She consumes 4,000 l of diesel in 24 hours steaming at 10knots - about £1,200's worth a day. She was being unloaded by some very friendly "stevedores". Gavin and James told me they loved telling people they were "stevedores" because people have no clue what job that is!
Thank you Darren for a very interesting stay. Not your normal "yachtie" destination - but I would highly recommend a visit....and do chat to the stevedores!
Darren told me the most unexpected consequence of him becoming HM was that overnight local people in six towns recognised him and said hello! After a career as a Health and Safety expert on oil rigs (he once manned a rig being towed from Cromarty Firth to Brazil) he told me what a great team he works with and how much he enjoys his job.
Built in 1877 by the famous Stevenson family, the harbour had several extensions up to 1912 when the current layout was finalised. The breakwater being solid concrete was the first of its kind in the UK. Photo 4 and 5 are taken from the same spot - the first in 1929 showing some of the 290 "Steam Drifter" fishing boats that worked out of Buckie then, and now, with Good Dog leaving the harbour which has fully diversified to include ship building, wind farm maintenance and general cargo.
I investigated one ship, the LYRIKA, which was bringing a 2,000t cargo of locally grown barley, back from Ipswich where it had been "malted" and was now ready to be turned into one of the famous Speyside whiskys. Built in Holland in 1994 the Lyrika is Lithuanian owned, Russian skippered and Ukrainian crewed (luckily they all seemed to get on very well - photo 7!). She consumes 4,000 l of diesel in 24 hours steaming at 10knots - about £1,200's worth a day. She was being unloaded by some very friendly "stevedores". Gavin and James told me they loved telling people they were "stevedores" because people have no clue what job that is!
Thank you Darren for a very interesting stay. Not your normal "yachtie" destination - but I would highly recommend a visit....and do chat to the stevedores!