Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 19:59:50 +0100 From: Ann Street Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Forth and Clyde trip day 2 [ 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. ] Up bright and early this morning to be ready for the first locking which was scheduled for 8am but which actually took place at 9.10. By devious means Gamebird managed to come up with the first 4 boats and it was cameras flashing all the way.We were surprised to find that all paddles were gate paddles and none had baffles fitted. As Gamebird was at the front of the locks this was interesting at times. However, BW, who operated all locks, were first class and we got to the pound between locks 15 and 16 at 1.40. We spent the afternoon watching boats shuffling around to get to their allocated mooring. Some boats were craned in above lock 16 and came down to moor in a lower pound, some boats cruised through from Kirkintilloch this morning and the rest of us had come up from the sea lock. The sun shone till late afternoon when we had a few showers but they didn't dampen anyone's spirits. The crowds had come out to welcome us and there was a great feeling of celebration that we are actually cruising where no boats have cruised for 40 years. Tomorrow starts with a big celebration here in Falkirk but I don't think anyone will be having an early night to prepare for it. More tomorrow. Annm ---