Ark Royal’s farewell to the Clyde

08.30 17th November 2010: Ark Royal may have been disarmed but the old warrior can still command attention.

Loch Long is full of activity.

MV Steersman, the oil tanker that went up to Finart yesterday is on her way out again, bound for Eastham, led by the minehunter, HMS Ledbury.

Update 09.00: Another tanker, Euro Swan, for Finart, has been berthed out of the way at the south of Finart by the tug Flying Spindrft, now on her own way south out of Loch Long.

This leaves the narrows at Finart clear for Ark Royal to be manoeuvred away from the Glen Mallan weaopons jetty, down Loch Long and out of the Clyde for the last time.

It’s one of those days where folk say that the world weeps too – and it’s certainly sighing heavily and chucking the tears around generously.

The tug, Svitzer Milford is with Ark Royal, on her starboard side opposite the jetty.

The Serco naval auxiliary tugs, Sd Impulse and Sd Nimble arc crossing the entrance to Loch Goil, with Sd Dexterous in pursuit.

Update 09.15: Impulse and Nimble are passing the berthed Euro Swan on their way up the loch to Glen Mallan, their speed coming down to around 5 knots.  Dexterous behind them, is already north of the mouth of Loch Goil, doing 8 knots and catching them.

Svitzer Milford is holding station in the loch, waiting, idling at 0.3 knots, astern of Ark Royal who is facing north.

Update 09.25: Nimble has taken the lead, with Impulse and Dexterous astern of her together. All three now have Ark Royal in their sights at her berth on their port side, at the Glen Mallan jetty, a few minutes away from them.

Update 09.30: Nimbleis now with Svitzer Milford, with Dexterous behind them and Impulse bringing up the rear and dropping speed to take u that position in the manoeuvres to come.

They will have to pull Ark Royal clear of her berth and turn her anticlockwise in the narrows, to face south out of the loch.

Update 09.35: Dexterous is now in bow position on Ark Royal’s starboard side and has swumg to face west across the narrows. Nimble is next to her, with Svitzer Milford and Impulse astern.

Dexterous has gone astern tto come into Ark Royals hull, with Nimble midships and Svitzer Milford at the stern end. Theye’ll be cabled up to do the heavy lifting. Impulse is holding position just off the group, south of the jetty.

The tugs are nudging around, engines idling, getting themselves ready to ease the great ship sideways way from the jetty.

Update 10:00: The tugs are like a terrier pack, nested in close to at at the side of the carrier, running their engines astern to ease her away.

Update 10.14: They’ve got her bow away from the jetty, moving west into the loch, her stern held clear of the jetty as they swing her in these confined circumstances.

Update 10.16: She;s now laterally across the loch,  stern close alongside the jetty, bow facing west across the loch.

Update 10.18: Already facing south, Dexterous and Nimble on her starboard stern keeping her off while Impulse has come into play on her port bow, countering any shorewards swing at that end. Svitzer Milford standing off midships.

Update 10.20: Dexterous is now at her starboard stern side. Nimble has come round to her port side midships. Impulse is on the bow and Svitzer Milford is moving to take up position astern of Ark Royal.

Update 10.32: Ark Royal is now gently under way – at 0.8 knots, moving southwards with Dexterous at the port bow and Nimble on the starboard bow, Milford on the stern, and Impulse to the rear of the nudgers and pushers

Update 10.35: Now up to 4.5 knots.

Update 10.40: Up to 7-8 knots, Ark Royal and her brood of strong suckling terriers is moving downstream steadily downstream and away.

Update 10.45: The convoy is now passing Finart to port, with the fur tugs strung out ahead on escort, proudly heralding the  coming – and the leaving – of their historic charge.

Nimble and Dexterous and in the van, with Impulse and Milford coming up to joint them in line across.

Update 10.55: Ark Royal switched off her AIS transponder a few minutes ago so we will not be able accurately to report her position, The tugs are sweeping ahead of her, returning to their other duties and leaving her to take centre stage. They’re now clear of the entrance to Loch Goil, doing around 10 knots.

The minehunter, HMS Ledbury, is waiting for Ark Royal just north of the entrance to Loch Long, off the west shore of the Rosneath peninsula..

If and when we see clusters of activity that suggest where she is and who is escorting her, we’ll be back to report it here.

Update 12.20: The tugs are in or near their own berths. HMS Ledbury has, we think, fallen in astern or ahead of Ark Royal at the mouth of Loch Long.

Update 13.30: Ark Royal is in the outer Firth of Clyde, west of mid-channel and opposite Brodick on the Isle of Arran. How do we know? Her transponder’s back on and we can see her. She has just done a couple of sharpish course corrections to say a last greeting to the CalMac ferry to Arran, the Caledonian Isles. She’s now doing around 19 knots on 203 SSW, a heading which would take her to pass south of the Pladda Light off the south of Arran on her way west round the Mul of Kintyre and north through the Pentland Firth to go down the east coast on her farewell tour. And Newcastle rather than Rosyth may get the ceremonial visit.

(And her transponder’s off again – and on again. We’ll do what we can to keep track of her.)

Update 14.50: Ark Royal is in no hurry to leave the Clyde. She’s not much farther south off the east of Arran than she was an hour and a half ago. Currently she’s off Holy Island and Lamlash Bay and is doing 14.9 knots on 182 S.

Update 09.00 18th November: We’ve not seen her since the last update. She switched off her transponder and became invisible and she’s not switched it on since. She’ll be through the Pentland Firth and somewhere off the North  East by now.

If we pick her up again, we’ll report on that but this may be the last update and, symbolically, we never saw leave the Firth of Clyde.