Manoeuvres in the Moray Firth

This is the Seaway Ventus, a self-propelled jack-up vessel designed to install offshore wind turbines and their foundations, anchored off Brora on Thursday morning.

We rarely see much traffic in the Moray Firth so we were pleased this morning to wake up to....

....a warship off Tarbet Ness. She steamed across the firth towards us then ....

....turned north to pass in front of Golspie before heaving-to off the coast between Golspie and Brora.

She was the Danish command vessel Absalon and she was later joined....

 

....by a second warship, much more distant, which I was able to identify as a Royal Navy ship, HMS Portland, a Duke-class frigate.

A NATO exercise, Steadfast Noon, is due to begin tomorrow. While this is described as a two-week exercise involving, "more than 60 aircraft taking part in training flights over Western Europe," it's quite possible that the two naval ships are also taking part.