Last Day in Oban

This morning Toryn, Alistair and HRH Neil were left to sleep through everyone else’s breakfast, so started their morning with a trip to the showers. There followed a trip into Tobermory to stock up on fruit, sweets and a toastie loaf. As we deliberated over the shopping list in the Co-op, a certain instructor from school cycled in. After being told just where he could park his bike, Rick told us how he had tried to follow us on Skye, but we hadn’t stopped. After Col threw Rick’s bike into the tender, we realised that he was coming aboard for the journey to Oban. We managed a thorough hoovering just before a large round of toast, then we were off.


The day’s sailing was fairly unremarkable, the weather was favourable (minus the occasional shower) and the wind was mostly in our direction. We made good time to the island of Kerrera (a small piece of land barely separated from the town of Oban) with a small amount of motoring. A brief spell in Oban (for some deep fried tea) sparked some excitement for crewmates JT and Tim D. The prospect of a deckhand job aboard an ancient Dutch pirate ship was enticing. An eight day expedition to Hartlepool lead to JT (and co) enquiring about the position, unfortunately, the vacancy had been filled earlier in the day. Better luck next time guys.

It now seems appropriate to consider some of the things we achieved on board:

Total number of miles covered: 509

Total hours of motoring: 53

Route taken: Glasson (Start) to Ramsey to Port Ellen to Ulva to Loch Scavaig (via Gunna Sound) to Mallaig then anticlockwise around Skye to Tobermory to Oban (Finish)

So ends our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition. We departed from Glasson dock early in the morning on Saturday 24th July and arrived at Oban in the late evening of Saturday 31st July. All that remains is to give thanks for a truly fantastic week to: (in no particular order) Skipper Colin, Phil (Aladdin) and George.