Maersk Boston now leaving Clyde, Beaumont preparing to follow

(Regularly updated below) As we write – 16.05 18th June, Maersk Boston, having spent time under the attentions of tug Svitzer Milford, is leaving her anchorage at the Tail of the Bank off Greenock. She is up to 7 knots and sailing WSW out of the Clyde. Milford is keeping company and pace with her, a ready shepherd should needs be.

Behind Boston, her sister ship, Maesk Beaumont, the second of the line’s container ships into Loch Striven a year ago and the main warm ship in the raft, is in the care of two tugs, CMS Buster and Battler, indicating that she will shortly follow Boston.

We had understood that one of the three remaining B-class ships in Loch Striven, Baltimore, was to come out and up to the Tail of the Bank today. It looks as if Boston and Beaumont needed to clear the anchorage first, so Baltimore may arrive off Greenock in the next couple of days.

The final two ships rafted up in Loch Striven, Bentonville and Brooklyn, are due to make the trip out on 1st July.

We will post regular updates on the current movements of Boston and Beaumont for as long as we can ‘see’ them.

At the moment (16.20 18th June) Boston is up to 9.4 knots – and Milford with her – sailing 229 SW, leaving Dunoon behind her to starboard.

Boston is showing her destination as Portland, with an ETA of 06.00 on 20th June. Her return to service will see her carrying empty container to the Far East – a main business need of the moment.

Funny to think that her industrial cathedral of a cargo hold, that so recently hosted the brutalist Roboidz and the Vaporiser set (made in Bute)  for CBBC’s Mission 2110, will soon fill up with empty boxes.

Beaumont, with Buster and Battler, is still keeping her powder dry.

Update 16.38 18th June: Milford has now parted company with Boston and is returning to Greenock at 11.3 knots. Boston is flying solo for the first time for a year  – Mission 2010 – and up to 15.4 knots, on 192 SSW and just north of Wemyss Bay.

Update 17.01 18th June: This is goodbye. Boston has just cleared the end of the Cowal peninsula and the route back to Loch Striven, slowed to around 8.5 knots through the ferryway to Rothesay.

Update 17.12 18th June: Svitzer Miford, job done, is on her way back to berth in Greenock and has just passed to the south of the trinity of Beaumont, Battler and Buster at the Tail of the Bank, looking as if they’re building up to a move.

Boston is down to 7.4 knots for the narrows between the Cumbraes and the south east of Bute.

Update 17.30 18th June: Boston, now between Great Cumbrae and Bute, was about to be caught by the tug Ayton Cross who towed her out of Loch Striven and to her anchorage at Tail of the Bank on 11th June. She upped her speed from 7.4 to to 10 knots and Ayton Cross is respectfully keeping her distance in the rear. No action yet with Beaumont.

Update 17.55 18th June: Boston is just clearing the channel between the southern tip of Bute and Little Cumbrae, with the timber boat, Red Baroness (well known in Ardrishaig), approaching on her port bow to enter the narrows.

Update 18.00 18th June: Boston is now out in the channel to the east of Arran. She has turned to sail South on 182 and is building up speed, currently at 15 knots, with the Red Baroness passing astern. Ayton Cross is still behind her and may be heading for the Marida Melissa, a tanker currently at anchor in Brodick Bay off Arran.

Update 18.45 18t June: Boston is  now passing Lamlash Bay off Arran, still on the same heading and doing 10.4 knots. Wiith Ayton Cross still in company astern, it looks as if the tug is seeing Boston safely on her way.

No sign of any action with Beaumont but the tugs are still there.

Update 19.15 18th June: Boston has just cleared the south of Arran and has gone on to a heading of 133 SE, parting company with Ayton Cross which has swung away SSW towards the Pladda light, south of Arran.

Now 19.24, Boston has come round to 93 E and on round to 68 ENE. Hard to read what’s going on.

Update 19.45 18th June: Boston has now come right round and is heading 9 N, back up the east side of Arran. We;re guessing wildly here – but were the two Maersk ships to travel in company and is Boston waiting for the solution to Beaumont’s obvious problems in getting away? Hard to think that this will be tonight, although both tugs, Battler and Buster, are still with her.

Update 20.00 18th June: Boston has reduced speed to 6.7 knots and has come round to a heading of 317 NW. Is she going to anchor off Lamlash Bay and sit it out until Beaumont gets going? At 20.05 she’s round to 271 W – she’s circling.

Update 20.30 18th June: Has Boston now given up on Beaumont and decided to go it alone? She’s come round and now seems settled on a southerly course – 179 S – and has upped her speed to 16.6 knots. There’s certainly nothing happening back at Greenock, with Beaumont, Battler and Buster.

Update 21.00 18th June: Battler has left Beaumont to it for the night and is headed for her berth. Buster is still with the ship. Meanwhile, Boston is doing over 16 knots and headed 232 SW crossing a line between Turnberry and the southern tip of the Mull of Kintyre. She’s off.

Update 22.05 18th June: Buster has now bade goodnight to Beaumont and is headed in to her berth at Greenock. That’s clearly it for the night. Boston is now up on the Corsewall Light at the entrance to Loch Ryan. She’s been making a steady speed of around 16 knots on a course of 208 SSW.

Update 22.30 18th June: Boston has now come round to a course of 172 S for the run down the Irish Sea. The Maidens are away off her starboard bow.

Update 23.00 18th June: Boston is making just under 16 knots on 176 S and is crossing a line between the port of Larne to starboard and the Killantringan Light on the Rhinns of Galloway to port.

Update 23.30 18th June: Her change of course to 165 SSE will take Boston clear of the Copeland Islands off Donaghadee, south of Belfast Lough.

Update 00.30 19th June: Boston is doing over 15 knots on 159 SSE and coming up to cross a line between the South Rock off the entrance to Strangford Lough and the north end of the Isle of Man.

Update 01.45 19th June: As we sign off for the night, Boston is crossing a line between the entrance to Carlingford Lough and the Calf of Man, off the south of the Isle of Man. She’s doing just over 14 knots on 193 SSW ad f you could see the sheer volume of shipping in the Irish Sea just now, you’d never again think that a night passage must be a lonely business.

After her long months stilled on the raft in Loch Striven – albeit with the entertainment of acting as a film location for Mission 2110 – there is something refreshingly purposeful about her steady drive southwards and back to work. This is what ships are for and both she and her crew will be heartily glad of it. We’ll see where she  – and Beaumont – are, later in the morning.

Update 07.15 19th June: Boston is coming up to cross a line between Arklow and the tip of the Lleyn peninsula, doing 17.2 knots on virtually the same heading, 196 SSW. Back at Greenock no tugs have yet gone to Beaumont nor to Loch Striven for Baltimore.

NOTE ADDED 30th June: We are leaving our excitable updates below in place, to stand as evidence to misinterpretation on our part. What is going on over the sequence of days where the tugs Buster and Battler attend to Maersk Beaumont, is nothing to do with a series of frustrated attempts to get her moving. It is about cleaning her hull. When the ships come out of lay up in Loch Striven to anchor off Greenock, their hulls are scrubbed with soft brushes in a chemical-free process; and the ships have class inspections. So that is the process the tugs are facilitating when we note their presence below.

Update 09.30 19th June: The tugs Battler and Buster – never better named – are back out with Maersk Beaumont. We’ll keep an eye on developments.

Update 12.45 19th June: The tugs are still with Beaumont but there;s no sign of movement yet. Boston, however, is through the traffic separation zone west of Pembroke and is now south west of St Govan’s Head, on 199 SSW, doing 14.3 knots.

Update 18.45 19th June: Boston is round the Lizard and looks like she’ll easily be on her 06.00 ETA at Portland tomorrow morning (20th June). Beaumont is still anchored at the Tail of the Bank off Greenock and the tugs Battler and Buster are still with her.

Update 21.00 19th June: Battler has given up on Beaumont and gone to bed – since she packed it in at 21.00 last night, this is obviously her check out time. Buster is still hanging on in there. She stuck it out until 22.00 last  night. We’ll see what happens at that time tonight.

Update 22.05 19th June: On cue – well a few minutes after, Buster has packed it in for the night and is headed for her berth, leaving Beaumont to ponder her next move. On the south coast now, Boston’s making steady progress in heavy traffic east of the Lizard, doing 14 knots on 73 ENE, on schedule for Portland by 06.00 tomorrow.

Update 09.15 20th June: Boston arrived in Portland on schedule and the tugs Buster and Battler are back with Beaumont at the Tail of the Bank.

Update 13.15 20th June: Beaumont was lying with her bow to the south with the tide and the tugs Battler and Buster  have used bursts of energy to swing her round to point westwards and to keep her on that heading. Since this would be her exit line, it may be an indicative move but then again… Meanwhile Boston is swinging with the tide herself, anchored in Portland Bay.

Update 13.40 20th June: The tugs are letting Beaumont swing back to the south with the tide, so she’s not going anywhere just yet.

Update 08.30 21st June: Tugs Buster and Battler are on their way out to Beaumont again. They were preceded by the departure of two more tugs, Svitzer Milford and Anglegarth, leaving Greenock at 08.00 for Loch Striven to bring Beaumont;s sister B-class ship, Baltimore up to the same anchorage at the tail of the Bank, off Greenock.( The progress of the operation to move Baltimore out of lay up in the Maersk raft on Loch Striven is reported in a separate story.)

Update 09.05 21st June: The tugs are using short bursts of speed to nudge Beaumont round to face west, which would be her exit line from the Tail of the Bank. With Baltimore to be brought up later today, Beaumont may be preparing to go – but we’ve been here before so we’ll wait and see.

Update 09.20 21st June: Whatever that last move was about, they’ve packed it in. The tugs’ modest nudging and control speeds (below half a knot) have dropped and Beaumont is now lying to the north, stern to Greenock and bow to the tip of the Rosneath peninsula, going nowhere.

From now on we’ll report nothing until she actually moves.

Update 12.12 21st June: Maersk Boston has just sailed from Portland, on 251 WSW, bound for Suape in Brazil, with an ETA of 01.00, 3rd July. To the best of our knowledge, she is sailing empty and will pick up a cargo at Suape for the Far East, probably of empty containers.

So this now is goodbye to Boston, leaving UK waters in her return to service. CBBC’s sci-fi series, Mission 2110, with major scenes filmed in her giant cargo hold, will keep her presence in Loch Striven alive in the memories of the young actors concerned.

Until they individually got zapped in the closing games, they spent periods of time living, with tutor/chaperones, on the laid up Maersk ships rafted in Loch Striven.

The boys slept in Bentonville and the girls in Beaumont. All worked on acting out gaming and adventure scenes in the massive engine room of Beaumont – still to leave the Clyde (watch this space), the flush decks of the black hulled old lady, Sealand Performance, the first to enter and the first to leave Loch Striven and in action with the rogue Roboidz in Boston’s cargo hold.

They will never forget this quite unique experience and the name ‘Boston’ will always evoke in them the memories of dawn starts, hard work and excitement in a world few, other than merchant seamen, ever get to know.

Bon voyage, Boston.

Update 20.15 21st June: Beaumont now has not only the two tugs, Battler and Buster, with her at the moment, She has her sister ship Baltimore, leaving Loch Striven today and towed up to anchor beside Beaumont at the Tail of the Bank, off Greenock. And Boston is clearing the Lizard on 270 W, headed for the traffic separation zone en route for Suape.

Update 16.30 23rd June: Beaumont has ust left her anchorage at Tail of the Bank off Greenock, in the charge of the Svitzer tug, Anglegarth. She s leaving behind at the anchorage her sister B-class ship, Baltimore two days ago. Beaumont is moving swiftly westwards and showing her destination as Le Havre with an ETA of 17.00 on 25th June.

We are now reporting on her progress in a separate story here.