Leaving the Ark Royal we continued SW down Loch Long. As we cleared Cnap Point a Very Large Crude Carrier all but obliterated the view ahead.
She was an Indian owned ship called MT Ashna. She has a capacity of 2 million barrels of crude oil.
We met another kayaker who had launched just south of Glenmallan jetty.
Ashna was off loading her crude at the
Finnart deep water oil terminal. A pipeline takes the oil 57 miles right across Scotland, to the Grangemouth refinery on the Firth of Forth.
A tug was moored at the Finnart buoy. The SD Nimble is a Royal Navy support tug operated by Serco Denholm. She is 38m x 9m and has two diesel engines producing 2640bhp. She was probably waiting to manoeuvre Ark Royal from Glenmallan after the munitions had been unloaded.
HMS Ark Royal is a large ship but she was dwarfed by the scale of Ashna. By the time we had paddled her 330m length it was time for lunch.
