The RNLI’s Oban-based lifeboat set sail early on Thursday morning for Inverness as it bid a final farewell to the coastal and island communities is has served for almost 27 years.
The Trent class lifeboat 14-23 Mora Edith MacDonald, now part of the RNLI’s relief fleet, cast off from the North Pier at 7.30am, leaving Oban Bay past the war memorial, after which a volunteer crew continued her passage north to Fort William, entering the Caledonian Canal at 9am.
The vessel was moored at Oban’s North Pier pontoons for nearly a month after the new Shannon class lifeboat, 13-50 The Campbell-Watson came into service on March 4, the day of the RNLI’s 200th anniversary.
Mora Edith is to be based at Inverness to allow her to step in to serve any of Scotland’s lifeboat stations at short notice.
The vessel first went into service at the end of July 1997 and has spent more than 2,700 hours at sea on emergency service as its crew responded to first the maroons and then their pagers on 1,510 occasions. The vessel has covered some 27,500 nautical miles on operations.
Many of the 107 lives saved by the Oban-based crews have been on shouts on the Mora Edith MacDonald.
Yes! I would like to be sent emails from West Coast Today
I understand that my personal information will not be shared with any third parties, and will only be used to provide me with useful targeted articles as indicated.
I'm also aware that I can un-subscribe at any point either from each email notification or on My Account screen.