Wheel of fortune
MOTS and I have been along to Falkirk a couple of times, we think once before parenthood and once after. Either way, it's a certainty that we've been along twice, and only on it the once. Boy wonder certainly hasn't been on it so we set off this weekend to see how his sea legs are.
For the picky ones there are two main issues:
- His sea legs are already proven, at Blair Drummond last summer
- The Forth & Clyde and Union canals are canals, not sea Ah-ha! Not according to our intrepid sailor - "Boat on the sea" is what we got on arrival. And as we know, he's never wrong!
What goes up...
...may come downWe have good memories of canals, a trip along the Leeds & Liverpool was our last holiday before we had to start thinkling about travel cots. I can't believe THIS was almost three years ago! But it was. A lot of water has passed under the bridge through the locks since then, that's for sure.
We hadn't taken lunch, we had already decided to use the cafe on site - British Waterways aren't exactly a multinational corporate greed machine, so the profit they make does go back in to keeping the waterways open, help with new projects and restorations. So I don't mind helping by using the facilities. Which was good timing, considering the next boat trip with availability was about 45 minutes away, and it was just before noon.
We had a good lunch sat watching the wheel, the loading of the boat in front of us, the disembarkation of the boat we were going on. The wee sailor was amazed by the "boat in sky". I must admit, I still don't know quite how it works, but can recite the various stages and how many kettles it takes to turn it. And, as it happens, which operating system the PC that controls it runs on. Which explains the rest of the afternoon.
About 45 minutes a trip takes, from scheduled departure, a half rotation to the upper aqueduct, through the tunnel, spin around in the basin and back down to the lower basin. No worries, we can handle that. 12:20, we board, for a 12:30 departure.
12:30 - Cast off.
In the gondola.
Gates closed.
Water levels sorted out.
Water pumped out between the gates.
Seals broken.
And with the power of 8 kettles we start to rotate.
Alison, one of the skippers, was the guide for the trip. Very informative, professional, funny, and just spot on. At the top after spinning round and coming back into the gondola for the downward journey she pointed out some geography and history to kill the time it takes for the water levels and seals breaking before we can move.
"Right, does anyone have any questions, like 'why have we stopped?'?"
I hadn't even noticed we'd started moving, but there over my left shoulder was the closed gate holding back the Union canal, just a few feet about us.
And there we sat.
And there boy wonder started getting bored. Thankfully, to his credit, his little strop was just little (in the grand scheme of things).
"Does this happen often?" Asked Alison. And apparently it does now and again, usually the mouse stops working, they have to unplug it, plug it back in, reboot the PC. Windows 98 was never that good with losing mice, and given it'll be a PS2 mouse rather than a USB mouse if iot's running '98 - whoaaaa, hang on - '98? Wasn't this a Millenium project? Surely they could have used Windows 2000, Me or a real operating system!
The crux of the problem wasn't a mouse on strike, but a dodgy level indicator showing there was an imbalance in the water levels. For the geeks that means the efficiency of the rotation is compromised as it's meant to be perfectly balanced for minimum energy use, minimum structural fatigue, and blah blah blah. So after a short interlude, we ended up back at the top, half expecting a walk down the hill. But a quick pump later and we're going the opposite direction back down to the bottom basin.
13:50 - Disembark.
Stuck 35 metres in the air on a boat defying gravity with a tired 2 year old? NOT recommened!
