The last few months have been incredibly busy on non-boaty things, mostly work- and family-related, so it has been quite a while since I have written anything here. So, a bit of catching up to do.
In October, we happened to be in Edinburgh during the week, so decided to drive over to have a day at the Scottish Boat Show at Inverkip Marina running from October 14-16. It wasn’t the best of weather, overcast, rain at times, and a bitingly cold wind, but at least we were warmly dressed, and could take refuge in the marquee when it got too bad.
There was quite a police presence when we arrived, and we were told in no uncertain terms to keep off the road as a Very Important Person was arriving. It turned out to be Princess Anne, who had come to open the show. She unvieled a plaque and thanked everyone for all the hard work organising the event, and saying how much she enjoys sailing herself. She has a Rustler 44 which she keeps at Adfern – we had seen it on one of our previous trips on the west coast.
Princess Anne opening the Scottish Boat Show.
We thought that she might zip off once her speech was over, but she did actually stay on for a couple of hours, and we spotted her later in the local produce tent buying some jars of honey.
We were impressed by the flyboarding demonstration by WetJets of spins, rolls and somersaults, rising to 7m above the water at times, all powered by jets of water pumped through a trailing pipe. We heard later that on the day after, the flyboarder was injured and had to be taken to hospital concussed. Apparently the jets lost power and he crashed from a great height into the water.
Aerial display of flyboarding.
A highlight was meeting and listening to the talk of Dylan Winter, who kept us all entertained telling us of his experiences of boating on a budget. Dylan has an interesting project called Keep Turning Left, aiming to sail anticlockwise around Britain, making films of all the various places that he visits. So far it has taken him about eight years, and he is just over halfway!
Swannanoa 