Longcraig Update – We’re Open!

The Longcraig online booking system is open as of midnight on 28th February – so ready for 1st March as promised!

• We’ve completed our assessment of the tide times for the year, and worked out which dates we have to exclude from activities at Longcraig. This year, there may be a few more than normal that are excluded, as we continue to minimise any risks encountered from launching and recovering boats, especially at low tide.
• We’ve completed assessments of our instructor availability for this year – including a few who are no longer able to support our activities, but supplemented by a good number of new faces who will come onto the water team as the year progresses.
• We’ve completed our checks on who holds which activity permits which are needed to lead activities on the water (and there’s a few other things our team need to have behind them too)
• And, finally, for our Plan A at least, we’ve carried out our Risk Assessments so we can re-open in a controlled a d a safe way taking account of the ongoing COVID pandemic which is still with us.

As a result, we’ve had to make a few changes to how we go about taking bookings, and operating our activities – these were detailed in last month’s newsletter and are available to review on Longcraig’s website at www.longcraig.info.

Does this mean less opportunity for water activities?

Yes – just a little bit!

We’ve a number of previously arranged bookings which were held over from 2020 when COVID struck which the groups wished to keep open and carry over. So, we’ve removed these dates from our bookings diary as they are already spoken for.

We’ve removed a small number more than usual due to low tides when there’s no water!

We’ve had to spread out our activity sessions to reduce the number that are on consecutive days, and also to avoid activities with more than one group present (COVID limitations)

But on the positive side:

• We anticipate the majority of booking requests will be just as you will recognise them from before.
• We’re keeping our fees and charges the same as they were in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
• We’ve simplified our payment process for this year – no deposits needed, you just need to make sure your booking is paid (as previously) two weeks before the booked date.
• We have introduced a special date in the calendar each month, to enable individuals, or small numbers from a group or section, to take part in activities without the need to have a full group which meets the minimum numbers

We look forward to seeing folks at Longcraig this year,  to welcome back our old friends and also to meet new guests for the first time!