Long overdue update...

It has been too long and so much has happened in the last 9 months. It is time for a well overdue update.

1. MIDWAY ATOLL.

I am in the process of finishing a blog which includes a diary of my trip to this beautiful island in the middle of the Pacific. This will be live soon once I have written some more of the diary and latest. In brief, the trip was more special than I can put into words. The depth of experience, friendships and imagery from that trip are too much to translate in photographs or words - although I will try on the blog. Needless to say it was life changing I found out so many things about Midway, conservation, culture and myself. I am also putting much of my new found experience, knowledge and discoveries into my projects and work that I do.

2. SUMMER 2010.

Learn To Sea enjoyed some workshops on the beach at South Milton Sands and will continue to run events throughout the Summer of 2011. Dates will be posted on here soon.

3. BBC Autumnwatch 2010.

I also had brilliant news from the BBC Springwatch / Autumnwatch crew that they wanted me to run a couple of films for them as guest presenter. It was a fantastic experience. The crew are so much fun to work with. The first film was on snorkeling though the autumnal coloured seaweeds. It took a couple of days to get the filming done through September - October - trying to get tides and visibility right can be a challenge! But so much fun and what a brilliant excuse to do one of the things I love best - snorkeling!

The second film was about the strandline. The strandline is an incredibly rich and diverse habitat full of all insects that are a veritable feast for shoreline visitors. We had heard from Steve Trewhella that there were several unexpected visitors to our shoreline. So we laid some Longworth traps and found Shrew! Beautiful little creatures with pinprick eyes and a venomous nip if of the Water variety...it was great to show the public some of the amazing diversity of things that can be found on the strandline. Within the film, I also mentioned that you can make "Sailor's Whistle" out of Bladder Wrack. Although, I didn't know exactly how. I had a lovely e mail describing how to make the whistle - I can now do it!

The two films were followed up by a "LIVE!" chat with Chris Packham and Kate Humble on the sofa of all sofas. To say I was a little nervous is an understatement! But when I got to the studio the crew, as ever, were so amazingly friendly and nice that it soon seemed less daunting. We ran a rehearsal and I realised that it wasn't such a huge ordeal! In the live all went well and I managed to keep it together! Then onto Unsprung which was great fun even when we lost air!

4. Other stuff....

Learn To Sea also ran workshops on marine litter for BTCV and other beach cleaning events and other Private bookings for marine educational workshops.

What a busy, unexpected and amazing year. 2010 was a great year for Learn To Sea and me, personally. I look forward to an exciting and busy 2011 to share and impart my love and knowledge of the sea!

You can now also follow me on Twitter @MayaPlass