GalGael at Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival

Blessed with some blue sky, a work team of twenty occupied GalGael's now customary site in the Old Harbour at the Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival. Over the course of the weekend, the festival was reported to have 16,000 visitors and a fair whack of them will have come through our marquee, taking in carving, spinning and oar making. Our workshop back in Govan looked like we'd moved out as GalGael went on tour and set out their barra on the Moray Coast. It's always heart warming to interact with the general public and we got some tremendous feedback.

Mark on oar making

Rosie & Dougie rustle up custom on the raffle

Our boat (red, centre) nestles in with the rest of the skiffs

ps. if you entered the raffle, it was drawn on the stage in the harbour at 4 p.m. Sunday. 1st prize Flory, Portsoy; 2nd prize Romanik, Portsoy, 3rd prize Morag, Portsoy Thanks to all who entered!

Community against Coastal Erosion

Seumas and Tam reperesented GalGael along with staff and volunteers from Sunny Govan Radio, Tea in the Pot, Govanhill Baths and Karibou on a trip to South Uist to share experiences with locals and to see where we can help each other set up some new community initiatives. The trip was organised with Oxfam as part of their domestic strategy to deal with issues around poverty in the UK.

The group visited a fish farm, a hatchery, a seaweed processing facility and helped put up some fences as part of a coastal barrier to prevent the sea encroaching on precious farmland and machair. You can see pics at the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65054665@N05/