"With ships the sea was sprinkled ...."

Colourful selection of boats in Oban today. At the north pier is one of the Gripfisk boats [red on the left] out of Kristiansund, Norway. A group of local people set up this company to transport fish and fry; it also has facilities to sort, grade, count and treat lice. It's a fact of life that we now have fish farms, like it or not, and that fish are transported in this way, vacuum sucked from one container to the next. Yes, it's unpalatable, isn't it.

Altogether more of a feel good factor, the Spirit of Fairbridge on the right at the pier was built in Liverpool in the 80's by the Merseyside Trust, set up to provide a boat building project for young Merseysiders working under the supervision of craftsmen. The Spirit is a 92ft replica of a Mersey bay pilot schooner, used in the days of sail to guide larger merchant ships into the port of Liverpool.

It has become a training schooner, run by the Prince's Trust working with young people wanting to work on their personal goals and to ensure that the valuable learning is carried beyond their week on Spirit, as part of the Fairbridge programme - free and available to those aged 13 - 25, unemployed or struggling with education. The programme is flexible, continues as long as needed and there is after support for the participants.

To the far left you can see the white Church of Scotland on the Corran Esplanade, subject of an earlier blip, and on the far right, reddish building just in the picture, is the Columba Hotel, the only hotel where we have cut short our visit because of its run down state and lack of cleanliness. It's a few years ago, hope it's changed for the better since then. The two red roofs will be familiar to many of you, the well known Ee-usk fish restaurant and the Piazza, the pizza place.

"With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,
Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed"

William Wordsworth