A Scottish minister and a farmer are among the crew helping to sail an old Scottish naval vessel 7000 miles via the Amazon to Peru - where the ageing boat will begin a new life helping abandoned children.

The Rev Eddie McKenna and Dougie Dale, both from North Berwick, will be part of a six-man crew taking the former fleet tender Milford from the Clyde to the Peruvian port of Iquitos - visiting Madeira, Tenerife and Brazil on the way.

Their progress across the Atlantic and up the Amazon will be captured on film, documented for BBC Scotland and Scottish Screen.

Mr McKenna will be ship±s cook on the epic voyage, while Mr Dale will be an engineer.

Christian charity the Scripture Union (SU) is behind the idea. It hopes to use the Milford to ferry passengers and cargo between Peru, Brazil and Colombia.

That should produce about £35,000 a year to underpin four SU projects to help abandoned children forced to scrape a living on the streets.

The crew±s home for five weeks will be the 75ft, 125-tonne Royal Navy Manly class fleet tender.

She was based on the Clyde but is now redundant and has been bought by the SU especially for the South American project.

Starting from Greenock later this year, the adventurers will sail to Bristol, then Portugal, Madeira, Tenerife, and the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic, before crossing westwards to Brazil.

From there they will travel another 2000 miles up the Amazon to Iquitos with the help of a local ship±s pilot.

Once delivered it is hoped the boat can start work carrying 100 passengers and up to 35 tons of cargo.

Mr McKenna, who has been the minister at St Andrew Blackadder in North Berwick for 13 years, said he was looking forward to an amazing adventure.

He added: "The idea of using technology that is redundant in our society, yet immensely valuable elsewhere, is great.

"It is for a very worthwhile cause. It highlights the real needs of children, not only in Peru but here as well."

And Mr Dale, from Scoughall in North Berwick, jumped at the opportunity to serve as one of the two engineers on the trip after getting the backing of his family and farming team, even though the voyage will take place during one of the busiest times of the farming year.

"I relish the chance to help this very worthwhile cause and to see the Street Children±s Project at first hand," he said.

The team±s adventures will be the subject of a documentary sponsored by the BBC and Scottish Screen.

ARMAC Films will produce the feature, which will be directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Alex McCall. He made the hugely-successful documentary Boy David - The Return, about a Peruvian youngster whose face was reconstructed by Scottish surgeon Ian Jackson.

The film is expected to be shown on television on New Year±s Eve and will also be marketed at the Cannes Film Festival next year.

The SU±s Peru Street Children Project cares for more than 150 children in Iquitos and Peru±s capital, Lima.

Staff and volunteers have been working on it since 1989 and have been helped in the past by Scottish schoolchildren who holidayed at SU camps.