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Another wheely good day

«

»

Happy Birthday Susan.

Back from Linlithgow to Falkirk today.

A leisurely start then passing through the Falkirk Tunnel and the new Roughcastle Tunnel to the upper aqueduct at the Falkirk Wheel.

We followed a trip boat into the upper gondola, then rode down together. This gave us the advantage of the commentary from the guide on the trip boat drifting across through the windows.

He carefully explained all the technical terms and answered questions from those on the trip boat.

Cruising towards the top of the Falkirk Wheel

Tomorrow we will be heading down the final section of the Forth and Clyde Canal to the River Carron lock. We will have to get used to the specialist terms once again – those we don’t meet on the English Canals.

The British Waterways (BW) staff always refer to the person steering the boat as "skipper" which seems an odd term to us. Since the majority of boats they work through the locks outside the 6 weeks holiday period are coastal vessels transiting from coast to coast it’s a normal term for those users.

The other term which makes us think, is when coming into a broad lock with a choice of which side (half) of the lock we will use they will ask for "port side tie up" meaning keep left – or "starboard side tie up" meaning keep right. Sometimes these just get abbreviated to "port side", "starboard" or even just "stbd".

It’s really a compliment to be given such instructions as they sometimes just open both gates and settle for the boat getting in at all. If both ends are alongside the same side of the lock it’s a bonus. The BW crews complimented us on our handling of the boat and were soon just opening one set of gates only.

View from the top of the Falkirk Wheel

Posted on Monday, 14 August 2006 at 14:22        Comments (0) 

 

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