Plans change! A lot of faffing with a caravan aboard the MV Isle of Lewis when she was covering the Uig-Stornoway route in May 2015. Normally the Isle of Lewis worked Ullapool to Stornoway and more recently Oban to Castlebay.
I work for calmac, trust me when I say if they're asking you to do something it's not to make your life difficult, there's usually a good reason. Great videos.
Love your videos Andrew, it was through watching your video,s that my first trip on Euro tunnel was far easier than I thought it would be with our 8m motorhome, thank you.
She is in bow first because her stern loading ramp is offset to the port side, so if she was in stern first, it wouldn’t line up with the link span. Great video as well.
2:03 My heart used to pound as a child when we got to this point from Glasgow. Hours of driving and after two ferries. One from Ballachulish and one from the Kyle of Lochalsh. Such excitement... :-)
+golly447 Ha ha! Thank you. Did you notice the change in voice from the first 'Yeah, no problem!' to the final 'Look, WHERE DO YOU WANT THE FRONT CORNER OF THE CARAVAN??? Nearer to or further from the bulkhead??' You have to remember the front of the ferry curves in, so being told to 'straighten up' against a curved bulkhead wasn't terribly useful... :-/
I dunno why the AB acting under the bosuns orders asked you to reverse into that particular spot, maybe there was a sludge tanker coming on board which generally sails with them while the engine room pumps their dirty oil tanks up to it, that's heavy and would also have to be positioned amidships for access to the sludge discharge valve. I've worked on Calmac and it's a great job and I can categorically tell you that no crew member would have you reversing about the car deck with a caravan unless it was absolutely necessary, they've got more important things to think about than testing your (excellent) driving skills.
Many a lesser experienced caravanner would have crumbled at the thought of reversing! haha I would have got out, unhitched, dragged the caravan where it was needed, and hitched back up again! Didn't really understand the point, given there seems to be a motorhome in the lane in front of you!
+nwguyuk I'm not sure either. I think they were playing it safe with the use of space in case there was a last-minute rush. Spoiler alert: There wasn't! ;)
Watching this is quite worrying also! Usually when you are in a position where there is no other option but to reverse, you just get on and do it, usually end up surprising myself!
+stuartmac88 Thank you for the info! I'm guessing also that the Seaforth is too big for Uig, which will prove interesting in the future (if the Lewis is moved to the Barra run) should anything happen to the linkspan at Ullapool...
The island? Yes! The ferry? Not so much... I prefer the Hebrides, LOTI, Isle of Arran, and the Seaforth. No windows in the dog lounges on the Lewis for a start!
Haweater English, albeit in a beautiful accent that I wish I had. If you've never been to the UK, part of the attraction is that the accent changes dramatically over a relatively short distant. Same in Gaelic. Come on over some time!
I've just lost the will to travel anywhere in the western Isles other than on a bike. How can CaL Mac succeed in the modern world despite £10M subsidy and not penny of common sense to boot.
Absolutely ridiculous asking anyone to reverse with a caravan on a ship; more so when there's loads of bloody room up front; what idiot thought of this stupid idea, he should be sacked.
Murdo MacLeod its probably because his caravan and truck are long but light compared to hgv trucks, they wouldnt want a 44 tonne truck right on the nose of the ship and a light long vehicle in the middle.
It may seem stupid to you, but for the staff it might make perfect sense, I find it funny that your saying “what idiot thought of this stupid idea, he should be sacked” even though you don’t even know the full reason for doing it lol
Andrew Ditton bit late replying here but it was to let all the cars past you on the road when you got to uist. Stops people having to overtake caravans on the right roads out there.