We left Tobermory for the Isle of Luing yesterday during which I took my first sailing lesson. It is really exciting to take a boat like this one in your hands! At the helm of Silurian with the wind in my hair and looking towards the horizon I was very proud! To add to this we had some harbour porpoise sightings along the way. After a full and wonderful day we spent a restful evening just outside the lovely Isle of Kerrera.


We left Kerrera just before 7am. The sky was cloudy but it was beautiful to see the mist around the hills. We saw another harbour porpoise along the way to Luing. We arrived at 9:30am at Luing when Nicole (Ed. Officer) explained to us the schedule of activities for the day with Luing Primary School. We began the day with the students building their very own marine food chain -- which they really enjoyed! Then they were divided into two groups with one group going to the boat to catch and look at plankton, listen to marine mammal sounds and get a tour of the boat. The other group stayed on shore to look at marine life in our touch tank (makeshift aquarium) and find marine life themselves by beachcombing along the seashore and playing some marine education games.

I was working with the children on shore helping them find and identify the marinelife they found. They were very good at this finding crabs, winkles, starfish, anemones, lugworms . . . and much more. They were very fascinated by the large number of jellyfish in the area. The groups switched around after lunch with all the children getting a chance to participate in every activity. The afternoon brought out a really bright and hot sun -- so much so that olymar (Education volunteer) wanted to jump in the water for a swim! Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for this as we had to leave to head back for Tobermory. On the sail back I had chance to go up the mast to the crows nest -- I was really scared but once I was up there it was great. I felt so free and you can't beat the view from the top of the boat! With blue skies and sunshine and a mirror calm sea it was the perfect end to a wonderful trip.


Anne gaelle (Education Assistant)