The River Fal lay-up berths has welcomed another customer when the reefer (refrigerated cargo vessel) Brazilian Reefer arrived from Kronshtadt near St Petersburg to lay up. She joins the reefers Summer Bay and Summer Wind. Next week the Summer Meadow will arrive for lay-up.

Brazilian Reefer is on charter to NYKCool one of the world's largest operators of specialised reefer vessels. The fleet consists of about 30 ships which are operated in all major reefer trades worldwide.

Older tonnage reefers tend to lay-up in the northern hemisphere summer months. This year various other factors also affected the banana trade. The Ivory Coast government confirmed that heavy rain near Abidjan last week destroyed 115,000 tonnes of export bananas. In Colombia 4,500 hectares of banana plantations were destroyed by high winds.

The Windsor Castle, the ex Northern Lights tender Fingal, which has been laid up since 2000 is due in the docks tomorrow for dry-docking. She will then be towed to Leith.