Good evening and final greetings from MV Forth Hope and its delivery voyage!

We are now at anchor some 8 miles from the Amazon City of Iquitos where we will be arriving at 6.30am later this morning 7th September.

We will have covered just under 6800 miles in 42 days. (40 at sea). Already plans are being made for the ships deployment and a high level visit to see the vessel at work in just over a weeks time from various Government Ministers, the Vice President of Peru and our Patron HRH The Princess Royal.

Tonight however is about the tail end of the big tidy up. We were joined two nights ago by three of the permanent crew to enable them to become familiar with the vessel and its safe operation and various technical complexities. They love it and that is very much our hope for our volunteer medics who will serve aboard the vessel in the years to come.

Last night at midnight we passed Amazon Hope 2 which was moored in quiet stillness at a community further down the river with barely a light, no doubt asleep ahead of a busy day at work. I had hoped to see it in daylight and symbolically toot our horn and dip our flag in acknowledgement of the fantastic contribution she has made since 2006 and the 900,000 plus medical interventions that it has achieved. That will need to be for another day, perhaps after AH2 has a well deserved refit hopefully in October or November in preparation for another 10 years of service and up to a further 1 million treatments.

Our Float The Boat Crowd Funding Campaign has also been extended until later in the month as no doubt there will be some media coverage of our arrival and the visit of The Princess Royal. If you haven't yet had the time to make a donation please consider doing so and asking your email contact list to consider doing the same. I am quite sure if we all invited our friends to gift the cost of a coffee we would soon reach our appeal target. It would be most helpful!

So for the last time on this delivery voyage, thanks for journeying with us and for your interest and support in our work. 

With every best wish from the entire crew of Forth Hope and to EVERYONE who has made this ship a reality on the Amazon thank you.

Willie McPherson

7th September 00.30 aboard MV Forth Hope 6786 miles from Rosyth on the river Forth.