Cruise ship log

Robert Mason (Letters, 15 May) may well be the head of cruise at Forth Ports Ltd, but I suggest he pays more attention to his reading skills before misreading and misquoting me.

In my letter (13 May), I stated quite clearly that I logged more than 50 ships two years ago, not last year.

It referred specifically to 2013. I also stated that last year (2014) the number was reduced by about half, so the number he quotes (27) placed me about right.

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I was also writing about ships actually entering Leith harbour, and did not include South Queensferry, Rosyth or the new offshore anchorage for New-
haven, which I suspect Mr Mason has done in the numbers quoted for this year.

In 2013 the season “opened” at the Easter weekend. This year, of course, Easter was much later (5 April), but 22 May is over a month later still.

So I maintain that from more than 50 ships in 2013 to 27 in 2014 and 23 this year, there has been a marked decline in visits to Leith as well as a reduced length of season from (variable) Easter to 22 May.

I was delighted to see the first “very small” cruise ship to arrive on Mr Mason’s schedule this week. I shall look forward to seeing more during the new season, and will be logging them once again.

RW CATTELL

Western Harbour Way

Edinburgh

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