Hue; it was just something to keep the worst of the weather off the guys on there and our supplies.
We had thirteen locks to navigate that day. The final two being sea locks that would take us finally to the Firth of Forth, not far from the port of Grangemouth and then from there, the North Sea and home.
We set off at first light. We radioed Edd to tell him we were on our way and would keep in touch with him as long as we could. He hadn’t changed his mind, which was a shame, but he wished us luck on our journey ahead. I figured he had almost found what we were searching for, a safe haven where he could see out this thing in reasonable comfort, but we were looking more long term. We needed somewhere that we could put down roots and give the children a life as normal as possible and also to start to rebuild something from all the shit that was around us. We had wished him well before setting out on our final leg through the canal system.
The first three locks came in fast succession and we quickly navigated our way through them as we had before using the ropes and barge poles. The landscape once again became more built up. We safely navigated our way through a further four locks, we’d had company at a few of them from rotters, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. At least that was one thing that this journey had done for us. It had trained us how to efficiently take out these rotters! After the industrial area at Bainsford the canal swung sharply north along another canal called the Carron cut, we navigated our way through a fairly new lock and entered a small marina.
It was a lovely place with a few house boats moored up on one side. On the other side there was a large building that looked like a shopping centre, but we couldn’t be sure as it had been burnt out at some point and so was just an empty shell. We could see movement in the distance around the burnt out buildings, rotters by the looks of the way they had been wandering around aimlessly. There had been a few of them around the marina area too, so we didn’t stop and just kept heading north. The boats that we had seen wouldn’t have been any better than what we had already and we had thought it would have been too big a risk to take to be honest. We wanted back out into the open water of the Forth and on to the North Sea as soon as was possible, where there would be no more locks and rotters to contend with and we would be much more within our comfort zone.
We entered the river Carron at a large sea lock which was overlooked by a motorway above. We reached the Forth itself by sailing down the Carron a few hundred yards. Once in the Forth we grouped the three boats together and tied the Gamebird to the Saltwind. We dropped the anchors on the Saltwind and Hope.
Chapter Forty Eight
We all gathered on the decks of the boats, adults and kids alike. The atmosphere was jubilant. Everyone was kissing, hugging and high fiving and making as much noise as we wanted to. I felt free again. We’d achieved something amazing and were all proud of ourselves. Even the kids picked up on the atmosphere and were joining in the celebrations. We took a moment to remember the ones that we’d lost on our journey so far. Ben, George, Frank, Alan, Liz, little Kathy and more recently Ken and Gav. They’d all played a part in getting us to that point. David handed a bottle of scotch around and we all toasted the ones we’d lost and thanked them all.
We hadn’t really planned what we’d do once we reached the Forth, we knew the ultimate plan was to get to the North Sea and then on to Amble and home, but what we were going to do along the way and where we were going to stay each night was something we hadn’t planned in any real detail. We didn’t really care to be honest, there was no real hurry anymore, all we needed to do was get there as safely as possible and without losing anyone else.
We studied the maps and saw that there was a small island called Inchkeith two
We had thirteen locks to navigate that day. The final two being sea locks that would take us finally to the Firth of Forth, not far from the port of Grangemouth and then from there, the North Sea and home.
We set off at first light. We radioed Edd to tell him we were on our way and would keep in touch with him as long as we could. He hadn’t changed his mind, which was a shame, but he wished us luck on our journey ahead. I figured he had almost found what we were searching for, a safe haven where he could see out this thing in reasonable comfort, but we were looking more long term. We needed somewhere that we could put down roots and give the children a life as normal as possible and also to start to rebuild something from all the shit that was around us. We had wished him well before setting out on our final leg through the canal system.
The first three locks came in fast succession and we quickly navigated our way through them as we had before using the ropes and barge poles. The landscape once again became more built up. We safely navigated our way through a further four locks, we’d had company at a few of them from rotters, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. At least that was one thing that this journey had done for us. It had trained us how to efficiently take out these rotters! After the industrial area at Bainsford the canal swung sharply north along another canal called the Carron cut, we navigated our way through a fairly new lock and entered a small marina.
It was a lovely place with a few house boats moored up on one side. On the other side there was a large building that looked like a shopping centre, but we couldn’t be sure as it had been burnt out at some point and so was just an empty shell. We could see movement in the distance around the burnt out buildings, rotters by the looks of the way they had been wandering around aimlessly. There had been a few of them around the marina area too, so we didn’t stop and just kept heading north. The boats that we had seen wouldn’t have been any better than what we had already and we had thought it would have been too big a risk to take to be honest. We wanted back out into the open water of the Forth and on to the North Sea as soon as was possible, where there would be no more locks and rotters to contend with and we would be much more within our comfort zone.
We entered the river Carron at a large sea lock which was overlooked by a motorway above. We reached the Forth itself by sailing down the Carron a few hundred yards. Once in the Forth we grouped the three boats together and tied the Gamebird to the Saltwind. We dropped the anchors on the Saltwind and Hope.
Chapter Forty Eight
We all gathered on the decks of the boats, adults and kids alike. The atmosphere was jubilant. Everyone was kissing, hugging and high fiving and making as much noise as we wanted to. I felt free again. We’d achieved something amazing and were all proud of ourselves. Even the kids picked up on the atmosphere and were joining in the celebrations. We took a moment to remember the ones that we’d lost on our journey so far. Ben, George, Frank, Alan, Liz, little Kathy and more recently Ken and Gav. They’d all played a part in getting us to that point. David handed a bottle of scotch around and we all toasted the ones we’d lost and thanked them all.
We hadn’t really planned what we’d do once we reached the Forth, we knew the ultimate plan was to get to the North Sea and then on to Amble and home, but what we were going to do along the way and where we were going to stay each night was something we hadn’t planned in any real detail. We didn’t really care to be honest, there was no real hurry anymore, all we needed to do was get there as safely as possible and without losing anyone else.
We studied the maps and saw that there was a small island called Inchkeith two
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