The Voe Jarl Arrives…
I have a soft spot for the Voe Jarl – something of a cross between a tug and a workboat. The Voe Jarl arrived in MacDuff Harbour tonight. MacDuff Harbour and the town of MacDuff are extraordinarily quiet at the moment with all pubs and restaurants closed because of the virus. Let’s hope we get back to normal soon.
7 Responses to “The Voe Jarl Arrives…”
Is this one Tug and Dredge combined boat?
I think it is classified as a workboat but it does work as a tug. It’s a bit of a Swiss Army knife of a boat. There’s a huge wind farm going in off-shore (we can just about see it on a clear day) and all the cables from he windmills come up to some kind of underwater junction box about a kilometre off the beach here. The Voe Jarl worked as a dive support vessel whilst they were connecting the cables underwater (somehow). I flew over the English Channel recently. I was quite surprised to see just how many windmills we (and the Belgians) have off-shore now. Whilst we don’t get much sunshine compared to folks way down south of us, we do get plenty of wind!!!
Thank you for the information Richard, I’m not a fan of those turbines as they are a major eyesore, and will never generate the power of the standard power sources. They cost too much to maintain too…
They’re everywhere here now and whenever I want to take a photograph, if there aren’t power lines in the way, then windmills will be. We have (or had?) a lot of coal powered power stations and they belched out pollution. We also have nuclear. I’m really not keen on nuclear. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima……I’m sure there will be another nuclear power station accident sooner or later. I remember them telling us years ago that nuclear power would be so abundant, we’d be getting it for free. They forgot the small matter of decommissioning these power stations at their end of life and what do we do with all the waste? No easy solutions.
The power lines are a real pisser! I’ve never felt safe regarding nuke power, humans don’t really know how to control it just yet. No easy solutions, we should end Nuke power…
Yup. There was a lot of research into tidal power here a while back. The huge great underwater propellors were below the surface and so outs of sight and the tide is as regular as clockwork. Not sure whey that idea never took off. Not far from here up in the Pentland Firth, where the Atlantic meets the North Sea, they have ferocious tides and an ideal place for underwater turbines. Not sure if turbines were ever installed. Seems like a no brainer to me (but then, what do I know??!!)
[…] You can see the Voe Jarl coming into MacDuff Harbour here. […]