MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Voyagers and Baby Thomas Reach Isle of Muck.

On their voyage of a lifetime from the Falkland Islands to the far north, two Stanley residents and their baby have been sailing among the islands of North West Scotland.

Andrez Short, who worked in Stanley Power Station, and school teacher Alison Davies, who taught for several years in Stanley Junior School, and was briefly a fisheries inspectorate observer, flying with FIGAS ( Falklands Government Air Service), departed from the Falklands in June 1999. Alison, not realising she was pregnant, only found out in Montevideo and gave birth to their baby, Thomas, in Trinidad.

In their latest progress report to Mercopress, the travellers say they have spent a week on the Isle of Muck before sailing to Skye to meet Andrez Short's parents, having already spent some time with Alison's parents in Worcester, when they reached the United Kingdom.

The couple said: "Our stop at Muck was quite by accident. We were heading for a different island but the wind direction was much more suited to here. It has been a fantastic stay and just like being in a Camp settlement at home in the Falklands: houses, generators, way of life, sheep, the lot! The 29 islanders turned out to see Andrez's slide show on the Falklands and their journey so far, and they killed a sheep for him to bar-b-que mutton on a spit. People came in boats from other islands and musicians too. An excellent evening".They appear to have acquired a ship's cat since leaving Bristol in mid-April, stopping off at Barry, Swansea and Dale ( near Milford Haven ), on their way to the Isle of Man, where a Falklands contingent is taking part in the interntional Island Games in July. The travellers stayed for a week in the Isle of Man, where they aroused a great deal of interest and received an anonymous present left in the cockpit addressed to "the Wanderers currently alongside the Harbour Wall".

After calling in to Northern Ireland and the Islands of Islay and Jura, they had a warm welcome at Croabh Marina in Argyll, where the organisation "Sail Scotland" provided free moorings. "We had a lovely welcome", they said. "The folk were very kind and friendly and couldn't do enough for us... From there we anchored in Oban and some quiet little places off the beaten track".

The next stage of their voyage takes them to the Outer Hebrides, Stornaway, the Faeroes and on to the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway, before turning back for the