Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 20:30:37 +0100 From: Ann Street Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Forth & Clyde trip - day 1 [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] We left home just after lunch for a leisurely drive to Grangemouth, giving us stacks of time to get Gamebird ready for launching. When we got to the Yacht Club, we found the Fish (which is going to lead the procession) sitting in a part of the docks . Music was being supplied by a group - very nice of them I thought, but hw did they know we were coming? Apparently we had just missed the Scottish Television cameras. We started getting Gamebird ready when the Forth pilot who has been given the job of getting boats into the sea lock arrived in a little boat and started hassling us to get launched and get up the river ASAP. We did as we were told, even to the extent of leaving the Landy unlocked and the tail boards not back on the trailer. It only took us about 15 minutes to get to the sea lock and then we had to wait cos the electricity had failed on the lock. we eventually got through and moored in the basin with several sea going boats. What had all the rush been for, we asked ourselves as we would still have got under Kerse road bridge about an hour after we arrived. Gamebird caused quite a stir in the basin and I spent the rest of the afternoon showing people over her while Iain drove to Niall's yard. Niall has kindly let us store the Landy and trailer there which is very decent of him as BW wouldn't let him join the trip on Tangram - too many boats, they said. We are now at the start of a historic trip and I think a few whiskies might be drunk this evening to celebrate! Ann ---