No, not Melbourne’s St Kilda … the original location: an archipelago off the coast of Scotland where the 30 last permanent inhabitants left the islands in the 1930s.

While reading the news on the BBC Scotland website, Kirsty Batchelor found a reference to a recently renovated 120 year old 6 metre skiff, named Aurora, that a crew of eight was planning on rowing 160km, from the remote islands of St Kilda, to Portree, Skye.

Before being relaunched in April this year, the last time the boat had been used was to help passengers chase and catch up with a Glasgow steamer they had missed on Skye in 1913! Since then she had been stored in a boatshed in Portree. Most of the original Larch planks were able to be used in the restoration.

The crossing was completed on 31 May, and took just under 31 hours. The crew had spent two years preparing for the voyage.

See www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27606177 and www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27648717 for more information and photos of the boat and crew.