Bushmills Riverbank

Some visitors to Bushmills tonight liked this photo so I said I would put it on NALIL blog. There are some more images on the Tom from Turfahun photostream.

Click to enlarge images

Meanwhile over on Main Street who should we point the finger at for the Conservation Zone mess?

Rathlin - The Man in the Calmac Jacket

Where Yellow and Blue Make Green

Is this a secret EU mission to Rathlin Island to discuss the price of fish? Where's the customary DUP press release?

dupphotos

Diane Dodds, MEP, and Mervyn Storey, MLA, are on tour with a gentleman wearing what I'm told is a Calmac jacket, an item of protective wear supplied by the company that used to provide the ferry service to Rathlin Island.

Might he be the chair of the Rathlin Development and Community Association? Might he also be one of the skippers of the new but troubled RIFL catamaran, the Rathlin Express?

Ballycastle's New Dry Dock
8 September 2009

The Rise and Fall

'Lifeline service suspended?' and other photos - click here

The Great Rathlin Drought of 2009?

The Irish News ran a story last week entitled "Water shipped to island".

Here are some snippets from the September 2 article:

"NORTHERN Ireland Water (NIW) faced a wave of criticism last night after it emerged that it had been forced to ship thousands of gallons of water to residents of Rathlin Island."

"In 2004 ... a £400,000 mains water supply came into service."

[Was that the budgeted figure? Did the project not go over budget?]

"Over the August 31 bank holiday weekend NIW prepared for increased tourist numbers by shipping extra water to the island." ... NIW spokeswoman

[Has extra water been shipped at other periods of peak demand?]

"I’ve been told by residents on Rathlin that the pump from the island’s bore-well failed and that people were left without running water for large parts of the last two days," .. Cathal Newcombe, SF councillor

“Over the August bank holiday weekend a technical problem was identified with pumps on Rathlin Island.

“This resulted in the intermittent loss of supplies to a few customers directly linked to the pump.

“NIW provided bottled water to the properties affected where appropriate.” .. NIW spokeswoman

No mention has been made of an earlier problem with the newish Rathlin water supply:

Rathlin Island

8 January 2007 - incident lasted for three days

"Coliform bacteria failures in final waters at the water treatment works, service reservoir and in the water supply zone. Investigation by NI Water was unable to identify a specific reason."

Do the Rathlin boreholes have sufficient current capacity to meet the needs of the islanders, the tourists and the animals? There's been plenty of rain but is it getting through to the boreholes?

Gipsy Rose Lee and the Rathlin Ferry

A recent Department for Regional Development weekly business review was given the following briefing on July 17, 2009:

6.1 Public Transport
Doreen Brown confirmed that the new catamaran was now being used between Ballycastle and Rathlin Island.

Rathlin Island Ferry Ltd website tells a different and contradictory story:

The new boat "Rathlin Express" began on July 18th with a full compliment on her first trip! 97 pax + 3 crew!

The catamaran promised for July 1 went into service almost three weeks late and has been out of action on at least three four occasions since then, sometimes for several days at a time.


I received a 'catamaran broken down' text message on Monday, July 27, and the St Sorney was also acting as relief vessel on the following day. According to the Grapevine, the catamaran overheated and had to return to Rathlin. Did the driver forget to go through the proper procedures and fail to turn on the water supply to the engines?

The catamaran is timetabled to do the journey in twenty minutes but seemed at times to be taking over thirty minutes. Ship ais website shows that the catamaran travelled to Moville on Tuesday, August 4, and returned to Rathlin on Friday, August 7. A Moyle council official said new propellers were fitted, presumably to enhance the craft's speed.


The catamaran returned to Moville on Monday, August 17, and then travelled to Coleraine harbour the following day where it was hoisted onto the quayside. A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman said that this was done so that repairs could be made to the skegs. Did the catamaran ground or was there another reason for the damage?


I'm told that there is to be a special ceremony this Wednesday at 10am in Ballycastle to herald the arrival of the new vessel followed by lunch on Rathlin Island.

Perhaps the organisers will be consulting with Gipsy Rose Lee to find out whether or not the catamaran will be available for the special crossing.

Adds September 7

Statistics for Rathlin Express from shipais.com

Marinetraffic website

Rathlin island boat delayed by an hour grrr mechanical failure

11:20 AM Sep 5th from TweetDeck

It was the express which was out of service

[about 10pm Sep 6th from TweetDeck]