Thursday 24^th August, 2006

Anchorage: Loch Spelve

Position: 56°23.500 N 005°45.200 W

Distance surveyed: 48nm

Our final full day on board the Silurian and the sun was shining and all was well in the Hebrides. I think I can speak for all my fellow volunteers by saying we are all feeling somewhat sad that our trip will soon be coming to an end, the place and people have both made it a magic experience.

We set out from Oronsay and sailed up the west coast of Jura where we saw the raised beaches. Then zig zagged across the sound to the Garvellachs and past Seil where we started to encounter Harbour Porpoise happily bobbing (very scientific term!) along. The sea was glassy and it was so quiet that it felt quite eerie being on deck observing. We passed up the Firth of Lorne and the Kerrera Sound into Oban, where we sadly had to say goodbye to Juliet (we tried to convince her to stow away on the boat but unfortunately she couldn't be persuaded!).

With our last night on the boat looming everyone seemed to be drawn to the alcohol and confectionery aisles in Oban Tesco! We all wandered back to Silurian to sit down to our final evening meal of the week and Mick had made enough sausage casserole to feed us twice over, I will definitely miss the food when I leave tomorrow!

We are currently approaching the entrance to Lock Spelve where we plan to anchor for our final night, and we are excitedly awaiting the first night performance of “Duncan and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamboat”, to be performed by Otter and Libby.

That's all for tonight folks......

Sarah (volunteer)