MANY thousands - if not millions of viewers in India - augmented the hundreds who sailed to Wee Cumbrae island for the launch of the world centre of yoga and meditation as taught by guru Swami Ramdev Ji.

Make no mistake that whether you smirk, shake your head in disbelief or laugh at the Indian mystic's philosophy and practices Wee Cumbrae island will never be the same again.

Swami and his followers under the business guidance of the Poddar family of Glasgow have predicted that 20,000 tourists, mainly Indian, will descend upon the little isle every year.

Even if it is half that number in the first few years a lot of local businesses will benefit all year round. All hotel and guest house beds were taken last weekend for the initial launch and local boating firms like Cumbrae Voyages will need to think of buying new boats to run a regular ferry service to Wee Cumbrae.

You would have to think that almost all of the extra thousands of visitors will come to Largs, and some to Millport.

Incidentally, local boathirer Derek Brown ferried the tv recorded footage from the island to the satellite van to beam pictures around the world of the event.

Inevitably, for a first-ever full-scale shuttle service from Fairlie, Largs and Millport to 'peace island' there were hiccups at the weekend.

A reader called Kate wrote: "My yoga teacher and I had been eagerly looking forward to the event with Baba Ramdev on the Wee Cumbrae. On arrival it was a complete shambles. We were informed that 1,700 people were due to visit the island, and to expect to accommodate this volume of people on this beautiful virgin island was ludicrous and a violation.

She added: "Our little island must have been trembling when it saw this onslaught. The island's landing areas are not equipped for this volume.Originally there were boats to carry 80 and 212 passengers. By my calculation this would never accommodate the number of tickets issued. The ferries then took passengers, unwittingly, to Millport on the big Cumbrae and tried to transport them on tiny open boats to the Wee Cumbrae. This could have turned out to be a human disaster.

"Fortunately my yoga teacher was getting extremely bad vibes as we waited for the boat at Fairlie, so we and a few others decided to go home. How many people were let down?" A spokeswoman for the Poddar family explained to us that some of the groups of Indian visitors who missed out were given the opportunity to visit on Monday .

However, Millport was awash with members of the Asian community who had travelled long distances on Sunday to be at the opening ceremony. A couple of hundred were seen on the pier area on Sunday afternoon after missing out on the final part of their big expedition, some having travelled from India to be at the big occasion.

Intrepid News reporters David Walker and Calum Corral ventured over on an open RIB to bring us coverage of the historic occasion attended by all the major media.

Personally, like the confirmed landlubber that I am I will wait for a flat calm day to have my look at this piece of land, or, as they cleverly call it 'the land of peace.' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXCQrbNe8kQ&feature=channel_page