The Coastguard Vehicle

Kilchoan Coastguard is equipped with a Y-registration Toyota Hilux which is garaged in the station near the CalMac pier. It's a bit of a brute compared to a more up-to-date 4-wheel drive, and, being heavy, enjoys a wallow in the mud if it's given half a chance. As an example of its clunkiness, to engage 4-wheel drive involves climbing out and manually turning the front wheel locking hubs. Despite this, the team has had great fun training to drive it off-road.

Another of the van's less helpful habits is to have flat batteries at the worst possible moments: there is nothing more frustrating than arriving at the station on a call-out to find the batteries dead, something which has happened on two occasions in the recent past - this despite our having a battery charger and taking the vehicle out for drives at regular intervals.

So, with a beautiful blue sky this morning we took it for a run up to the Lighthouse. This is called going 'on patrol', an excuse for a pleasant drive around some stunning scenery at HM Government's expense. This morning the roads up to the Lighthouse still had patches of frozen snow across them, and the approach to the lighthouse itself was a solid sheet of ice.

2009 has been one of the busiest years in memory for the local Coastguard, with call-outs the like of which we hope never to see again, and some intensive and successful training behind us on the new cliff rescue equipment. So it's good to see the team ending the year in fine spirits.

JH