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)

Education Trip: June 27th - June 29th [Last Education Boat Trip this summer :( ]
Schools: Ulva Ferry Primary, Dervaig Primary, Tobermory Primary & Luing Primary

Nicole (Ed. Officer), Mike (Photo-ID Officer), Ann (Education Assistant), Olimar (Education Volunteer), Duncan (Skipper) and Davie (First Mate) 'entertained' the children from Ulva Ferry and Dervaig Primary in the morning with the boat moored at the pontoon in Silurians home port of Tobermory! The morning started off a bit panicky since the boat that had our spot on the pontoon had engine failure and we didn't get Silurian on the pontoon until the children arrived! A few activities were done on shore including our new 'Food Chain Game' while the rest of the crew finished getting the boat ready for the kids to come aboard. The children really enjoyed learning about all the different crabs in the touch tank and catching lots of different kinds of plankton including copepods and barnacle larvae (both crustaceans like crabs).

In the afternoon Ann and I assisted with the Tobermory Primary's 3 - 7 by explaining about all the wonderful adaptations of the animals in the touch tank and looking for other animals on the beach while the others did activities with whale and dolphin sounds and plankton. Nicole had split the children into four groups of 6 or less were enough to keep amused! All the children said they had a wonderful afternoon!

We had planned to leave Tobermory at 3:30pm so at 5:50pm we were heading out of the Bay! "The best laid plans -----"! The sun came out as we passed Salen and we had a glorious evening to motor down to Oban where we picked up a mooring a beautiful Kerrera.


An excellent meal prepared by head chef Mike -- mango chicken -- was enjoyed by all and after preparing some more cards for the 'Food Chain Game', Duncan and Davie headed off to pick up Marjolaine and Francois who were joining us.

One by one we l headed off to our bunks while leaving at last look at the glorious sunset.


Log by: Barbara Weir, Administration Officer