Pushing the boat out

GUESTS WILL BE spending the night aboard Leith’s latest hotel from mid-January according to General Manager, Bruce Macbride. Bruce explained that the beautifully finished interiors are almost all the handiwork of owner, Alan Pedley, who was involved in the £5 million refurbishment of MV Fingal, the other floating hotel in

Leith managed by Royal

Yacht Britannia.

The Ocean Mist was built in the 19890s as a fisheries trawler by the Admiralty and has had some

VIP owners in her time, including the Guinness family who used her as a pleasure boat and Joseph Hobbs, an Angus distillery owner, who used her to transport whisky to California during Prohibition.

There will be 17 cabins aboard but there will be no restaurant or kitchen created as the owners would like guests to patronise the on shore businesses. The Ship on the Shore will provide a cooked breakfast for guests or deliver a continental breakfast to them to enjoy in their cabins.

Bruce said: “I am going to keep a lot of the food and drink buying as local as I can, there are so many spirits in the Leith area that we can use, so the bar will be stocked with drinks like Lind & Lime and Port of Leith sherry and port.”

Recruitment is underway to fill the staff positions now available.