Inverness
September 21, 2020
12 May 21. HM 109. Having transited the Caledonian Canal, we now finally visit The Port of Inverness which takes its covid security very seriously, as you can see from my photo with HM Captain Ken Maclean. This is a truly ancient harbour with port records going back to the building of a flagship of the Venetian Navy in 1249.
Inverness became a "city" in 2000, but the locals still refer to it as a town. The "Port" itself is not very obvious. The aerial map (photo 3) shows the course of the Caledonian Canal running parallel to the River Ness for several miles before its final sea lock at Clachnaharry (photo 7). The port sits at the end of the Ness where Ken also runs the very safe yacht marina (Photo 6).
In a nutshell the harbour shifts lots of "stuff" very efficiently. Logs, cut timber, woodchip goes both ways giving the whole harbour a sweet smell of cut wood. A lot of fuel gets imported through the port and more recently wind turbines, which now abound the Scottish Highlands. Despite "INS" being a popular trawler registration, @susie.poe there are no fishing boats based at the harbour.
Ken is a very experienced ex Merchant Navy master and still enjoys piloting cargo vessels through the shallows of the Moray Firth. With his nine staff he shepherds over 300 ships through the harbour each year, but he was explaining to me that Brexit has added two hours a day to his desk admin... he is not happy! The owners of most ships visiting Ken are Norwegian and Dutch, often with Polish or Russian captains and most commonly Filipino crew. (A quarter of the world's 1.6M seafarers are Filipino!). His most unusual job to date has been herding sheep around his harbour.
A big thank you to all at Caley Marina @caleymarinainsta for fixing Good Dog's broken "paw" in a record 24 hours - it was actually her teak guard rail - thanks guys for beautiful job in photo 9! We departed Inverness under the dramatic Kessock Bridge full of surprisingly fond memories and excitement for our eventual passage to London!
Inverness became a "city" in 2000, but the locals still refer to it as a town. The "Port" itself is not very obvious. The aerial map (photo 3) shows the course of the Caledonian Canal running parallel to the River Ness for several miles before its final sea lock at Clachnaharry (photo 7). The port sits at the end of the Ness where Ken also runs the very safe yacht marina (Photo 6).
In a nutshell the harbour shifts lots of "stuff" very efficiently. Logs, cut timber, woodchip goes both ways giving the whole harbour a sweet smell of cut wood. A lot of fuel gets imported through the port and more recently wind turbines, which now abound the Scottish Highlands. Despite "INS" being a popular trawler registration, @susie.poe there are no fishing boats based at the harbour.
Ken is a very experienced ex Merchant Navy master and still enjoys piloting cargo vessels through the shallows of the Moray Firth. With his nine staff he shepherds over 300 ships through the harbour each year, but he was explaining to me that Brexit has added two hours a day to his desk admin... he is not happy! The owners of most ships visiting Ken are Norwegian and Dutch, often with Polish or Russian captains and most commonly Filipino crew. (A quarter of the world's 1.6M seafarers are Filipino!). His most unusual job to date has been herding sheep around his harbour.
A big thank you to all at Caley Marina @caleymarinainsta for fixing Good Dog's broken "paw" in a record 24 hours - it was actually her teak guard rail - thanks guys for beautiful job in photo 9! We departed Inverness under the dramatic Kessock Bridge full of surprisingly fond memories and excitement for our eventual passage to London!