portholenews@gmail.com

KIDS CORNER

Page 5

It also features a 'Wanted For Kids Club' section.

The website was launched today and everyone is encouraged to visit. The boys are looking for photographs of the marina kids so if any Porthole reader can help please email them at portholekids@live.com.

 

Check out the new website at: www.freewebs.com/portholekids

 

LORE, LEGENDS AND A MYRIAD OF MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP

Popeye and Olive Oil of ‘Open Return’

The Loch Ness Monster, including translation for Sassenachs (non Scots) affectionately known as Nessie. 

This Lady of the Lake (loch is Gaelic for lake) has been reported as far back as the 6th century by the Irish missionary St Columba. He is said to have seen a very odd looking beastie (beast) on the loch, all set to devour a bonnie lassie (pretty girl). St Columba’s bold words scared the dragon off, but not before a legend was born. Loch Ness, which is the habitat for said beastie, is almost 1000 feet deep, and extends for 24 miles. It is one to three miles wide. It is fed by 8 rivers and hundreds of burns (streams) bringing with their flow peat fragments giving Loch Ness its 3-4 feet murky visibility. I digress!

Why are boats and Nessies called ‘shes’? Is it because boats are so demanding and expensive to keep and Nessies are just unfathomable? Many other sightings have been reported; campers around the loch in 1933 said they had seen a dragon the size of a large horse, a local policeman saw an animal on the water with a long grey neck and a snake like head (mind you the said bobby enjoyed a few drams on an evening in the local hostelry), a vacationing couple also stated they had seen a monster with a small lamb in its dragon like jaws which sank in the depths after moving along the surface undulating up and down like a scenic railway. This was the nearest they had ever seen to a prehistoric animal in their life.

The famous surgeon Dr Robert Wilsons photos in 1934 show a creature with its head and hump above water. Sir Edward Mountain who lived near the loch actually made a movie of Nessie. This turned Loch Ness into a virtual convention of monsteroligists for 5 years or so.

 

Claudia & Moshe

s/y ‘Janette’

0536 2464183

 

Sails, awnings and

professional

repairs

If you have ever sailed Loch Ness I am sure you will agree it can be a rather foreboding place. Especially when you are anchored in one of the picturesque bays on a dark night with the highland mist coming down and you’re sitting in your cockpit on monster watch; with the obligatory company of a few excellent malts, and Nessie watching you watching for her.