Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing Tartan Blanket and Thermos Flask
or
Nice Out Again, Isn't It? Reginald And Me
Were Thinking Of Popping Down The Pitch And Putt Later If The Rain Holds Off, Do
You Fancy Coming?
But no, they get called
Bohemian
or
Ninja Stealth Bomber Hyper
Extreme
or something.
Anyway, the point is that I had all this time to contemplate such cerebral matters be-
cause the cars I could afford to drive back then were so slow it was only when we got to
a long clear straight that it became possible even to think about overtaking the offending
cream lumberers.
But no more. Nowadays I whip past their white-with-a-hint-of-beige arses with a
throaty rumble of snarling engine note and a nonchalant one-two of the wrists. When I
see a caravan ahead now, I think, Ha-ha! Prey!
Having said all that, the M5's got a towing hitch.
It's not for caravans, specifically, however; it's for trailing boats. For this next week
of distillery-visiting I was going to enlist the help of my friends Les and Aileen, from
Glenfinnan. As it's the start of April, it's also about the time when our boat would any-
way be emerging from its winterisation process in a big boat-filled shed in Grangemouth
and have to be trailed to Loch Shiel, where it spends its summers, so I'm combining the
two tasks.
The boat is an Orkney 5/20; it has a very small cabin you can squeeze about four
people into if it's raining (see above), a more generous open deck area, a 30 horsepower
motor and a depth gauge/fish finder. Most people probably use boats like this for fishing,
not that we do much fishing. We call it The Boat. It was called The New Boat for a while,
while the boat we now talk of as The Old Boat was still just The Boat, but now what was
The Boat is The Old Boat and what was The New Boat is just The Boat. Hope that's clear.
The Old Boat was a Drascombe Lugger I bought off a policeman in Glasgow, years
ago; it was a more versatile and characterful boat than the Orkney, but it was showing its
age; we retired it to Fife when we bought the Orkney a few years ago, then last summer
I took it down to Cornwall to one of my cousins with whom, hopefully, it'll start yet an-
other new life.
The great thing about the Lugger is that as well as having a small (very small) engine
for puttering around, and being rowable (if a bit heavy for rowing any great distance),
it has two masts and three sails. And not just your standard namby-pamby effete white
sails, either; these were tan sails, manly sails, butch sails; sails that looked like they'd
been dipped in Forth Bridge paint before being hoisted to the winds.
The Lugger isn't fast using any of its three power sources, but it has always felt sturdy
and reliable, and it's fun just because boats are fun. It's even moderately safe for single-
handed sailing because it's loose footed. This means that there's no dirty great lump of
