Caledonian Isles in Brodick, 2 June 2016

Teijo Niemelä, mister Cruise Business Review, is currently on the Aegean onboard the Celestyal Crystal (ex-Sally Albatross, Leeward, Silja Opera etc) and will provide Kships' first guest entry later, with a tour of the fascinating ship's interiors. But, while waiting for that, we'll return to the land of lochs and misty moors, and take a look at Caledonian MacBrayne's Caledonian Isles.

Caledonian Isles

IMO 9051284
Built 1993, Richards Lovestoft, United Kingdom
Tonnage 5 221 GT
Length 94,28 m
Width 15,80 m
Draugth 3,15 m
1 000 passengers
110 cars
150 lanemeters
2 Mirrlees diesels, combined 4 265 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 15 knots

The Caledonian Isles was built in 1993 to replace the Isle of Arran (detailed in my previous Scotland entry) on the Ardrossan-Brodick route. The ship was named in May 1993 by Princess Anne and was due to enter service for the 1993 summer season, but due to a computer error its entry into service was delayed until August. Even then, the ship suffered serious teething problems, before settling comfortably on the route. Very comfortably in fact, as it has remained sailing on the same service until the present.

The photos below show the Caledonian Isles arriving at Brodick on 2 June 2016, photographed from Brodick. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Notice that the progressive Scots have wind turbines, whereas in Finland they are vehemently opposed as they "destroy the culture landscape" (even though, by definition, "culture landscape" is a landscape where the effects of humans are visible).

The lighting was not perfect, but since these are my only photos of the ship (thus far) I'm going to do with it.

Interestingly, the ship is not in the standard CalMac colours; the masts should be buff yellow and the lifeboat davits the same light turquise shade as the ventilation equipment on the forward deck. It's quite interesting that the ship has retained this nonstandard livery of 23 years.

Nice background, but the lighting...

Next time: If all goes to plan, the Celestyal Crystal.