14/10/2026
🏁 And that’s a wrap. Horn sounding, lines off, and the AIDAsol sails out of Invergordon, taking the 2026 cruise season with her. Ship 97 of 97. Not one more now until the spring but still lots going on in Invergordon!
⚓ Seven calls this year, more than any ship bar two, and she’s heading south tonight for Leith. The season opened on 6th April with her sister AIDAmar coming in through the Sutors, and it’s closed tonight with the AIDAsol going out through them. Two AIDA sisters, one at each end of the year.
🌟 I’ve posted about her a lot in 2026, so here are three things I’ve kept back for this final goodbye.
👩🏼✈️ In March 2018 she became the first ship in the whole AIDA fleet to be commanded by a woman. Captain Nicole Langosch was 34, had come to the sea through sailing, studied nautical science at Leer and spent around ten years working her way up through AIDA before she took the bridge of this ship. Her words at the time: “I look forward to my new role as captain on board AIDAsol and am aware of the great responsibility.”
🌬️ She’s also a ship that will go a long way to keep a date with Invergordon. On the night of 8th September last year, on passage from Seyðisfjörður in Iceland, she sailed straight through a North Atlantic storm. Gusts of around 100 km/h, waves up to 8 metres, spray reported as high as Deck 8. Nobody was hurt, and she came alongside here on the morning of the 10th, right on time.
🚁 And last August she was the star of the show at SAiL Bremerhaven, lit up on the River Weser with around 300 drones flying a synchronised light show above her. Tonight she’s lit up on the Cromarty Firth instead, with one photographer on the shore and only two drones early this morning as myself and another local photographer stood on the slipway at Nigg to greet her in before sunrise. Same ship, slightly smaller production.
🩵 Gute Reise und auf Wiedersehen to everyone aboard. Thank you for being our final visitors of the year, and have a safe and calm passage down the coast to Edinburgh tonight. 🇩🇪 🏴
✨ And then this. I also took this image shortly before she arrived at the Sutors today. Just along the road over the Dornoch Firth I took this quick shot of the Milky Way too. Shot handheld, no tripod, no star tracker, so forgive the slightly wobbly stars. That second photo of the Night Sky is a nod towards the change of content coming to this page over the Winter months. So watch this space for more stories, more local information, more photography and who knows what else.. 📸
👋🏼 Thank you to everyone who has followed along since I began the Explore Invergordon just back in April. Ninety-seven ships, every one of them with its own post and story. The ships have gone quiet for the winter, but Explore Invergordon hasn’t. Over the coming months there’ll be brand new types of content on here that I've never done before, so watch this space. Oh and if you haven’t yet, have a look at last week’s post. Let me know what you’d most like to see here.
💬 Last question of the season. Which ship was your favourite this year, and which one are you most looking forward to seeing come back through the Sutors next spring? Let me know in the comments below.
📸 Both photos are my own, taken over the Dornoch Firth and the Cromarty Firth.
