The Audacity !

Well, it is called the 'Audacia' so I assume that means 'audacity'.

I thought I was seeing double today.
For three weeks, the largest pipe-laying vessel in the world, the 'Solitaire' has been parked off Kirkcaldy (apart from two 2-day jaunts to a North-Sea platform). Today a SECOND one arrived, slightly smaller but clearly designed for the same purpose. They are now sitting a couple of miles apart off the Fife coast in the Firth of Forth.

I have no idea what they are doing here because they have been contracted to lay pipes from two new gasfields west of Shetland (Laggan and Tormore) to a new terminal near Sullum Voe.

Another thing is puzzling me about movements in the Forth.
On Sunday, I spotted a tug (the 'Kraft') towing what looked like caissons up the Forth. Nothing unusual in that as a new Forth crossing is being built. Later in the day, I saw it heading out again, still towing the same cargo. Since then it has been doing about 3 laps a day (Sun, Mon, Tues.) towing this load round in circles between Kirkcaldy and the May Island.

Maybe 'It will ride for ever round the coasts of Scotland - It's a tug that will never return'.

(Apologies if you are too young to remember that song.)