Braer

A friend of mine was on the scene, on an anchor handler before she hit the rocks, and a tow wire parted and broke his arm, The company he was on was Gulf, but I can't remember her name. Regards Tony.

I was on the Far Grimshader taking a full load of detergent to clean up the mess. North of Sumburgh there was a strong smell of oil. The weather was atrocious force 11-12 all the way.
Approaching the Shell berth at Holmsgarth we were maneouvering astern into a force 12 coming down the saddle of the hill there, Tommy Grimes at the controls showed exemplary seamanship to get us alongside in evil conditions. After twelve hours alongside nothing was offloaded as the cargo was deemed more toxic than the Braer's cargo so we took it back to the mainland.

BBC weather said the weather in Shetland had not dropped below force 12 for three weeks...

Colin