As readers of the blog from a few days ago may be aware, Kirkintillock (or Kirky to the locals) is the home of the Firth and Clyde’s resident squadron of killer swans. We reported back a few days how they awoke us very early in the morning with their incessant pecking on the narrow boats hull. From the outside of the boat, I guess you can’t say it is all that loud but on the inside its as though we were trapped in a submarine whilst someone went along the hull belting it with a sledgehammer.
Anyhow we were aware of the situation this time and decided to moor up our boat, well back from the swan’s home base (ie their nesting area). The theory was that the swans probably only had a short-range attack capacity but would not be able to muster a raid over the medium to long range. In short, this theory was proved to be very wrong. The Kirky swan squadron had a range similar to that of a Lancaster bomber and we were to say the least “sitting ducks”. The attack started at 5.50 am sharp so it was yet anther early morning rude awakening. We did respond quickly with a counter measure and ran the engine to deter them. Alas this did not work either. These swans are indeed very persistent and capable creatures.
For our last day on the Forth and Clyde, t’was very blustery and bloody cold. According to the weather forecast it was meant to go to 17c with clear skies and full sun. Like all meterologists globally, they habitually distribute fake news.
This is the second of the two road bridges we had to negotiate. There is just something about one of the slowest forms of transport being able to stop some of the fastest forms of land transport – power to the underdog.
We made it back to the marina by 4.00pm which gave us time to clean up the boat and pack most of the car up for our getaway in the morning. We shouted ourselves Italian for the evening as a congratulatory dinner for a very successful holiday.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 