The Tobermory crew relieved the Barra Island lifeboat last night, Sunday 13th April and stood by the 88 metre cargo ship which is now drifting some 30 miles south west of Tiree in rough weather. Given that the cargo ship is drifting in a north westerly direction and is not in danger of encountering any hazards at present, Stornoway Coastguard stood down the Tobermory lifeboat at daybreak. Having spent more than 14 hours on the ‘shout’ yesterday, Barra Island lifeboat will return to the cargo ship to provide assistance this evening until the arrival of an ocean going tug which is currently en route from Aberdeen and is expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday morning. The cargo ship has eight crew on board. Tobermory RNLI Coxswain Andrew McHaffie says: ‘This was a long shout in difficult conditions with seas of up to ten metres at times.’ This has been yet another of the epic shouts Tobermory lifeboat is required to undertake, given its position out on the Atlantic fringe. A key issue here is the length of time taken to deploy an emergency tug from Aberdeen, with the Minches and the Northern Isles waters both now having lost their ETVs in Maritime and Coastguard Agency cost cuts. Had the wind direction now been kind to the environment, this ship could have been drifting into either the Skerryvore reef or onto Tiree itself. And it could have been an oil or chemical tanker, as opposed to the wood chip carrier it is. A tyg – the Stadt Sloevaag, which seems to have come up from Stranraer, is now passing north west of Tiree with no tow showing but may well have been deployed to this casualty. If so, its destination is in Norrway.
