A Crowded Anchorage

The Moray Firth off the mouth of Loch Fleet was crowded with ships by late afternoon yesterday, no less than six of them of which two were Wilson ships and one was....

....the ocean-going tug Kingdom of Fife, which was exceptionally close in to the Golspie shore - far closer than....

....we've seen any ship in the time we've lived here.

The Kingdom of Fife is an old friend from our days on Ardnamurchan, when she not infrequently sailed past us in the Sound of Mull. She was also involved with the salvage work when the Lysblink Seaways ran ashore at Kilchoan - for the story, see the Kilchoan Diary blog here.

It's one of the things I have most missed since leaving Kilchoan, where a wide variety of ships working up and down the Sound of Mull passed very close to our house.

The reason for so many ships being anchored in the Firth is very apparent today. We are in the grip of a run of fierce westerlies which are battering us with hail, sleet and even occasional snow; and there's little sign of this weather letting up as the week progresses.