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Sailing in Scotland

Sailing in Scotland - -

Whenever I've sailed with my father and been silly enough to mention that I'm cold I've been regaled with stories about "how it was back on Clyde, with icey rain and n'er a sunny beach to be seen - ya don't know how lucky you have it ..."

So I have no idea what he was talking about - I sailed a race on the Clyde from the Royal Gourock Yacht Club last night and it was a perfect evening. Just a threat of rain from the hills across the river above Dunoon to keep me thinking how lovely it was with the late evening sun shining and this magnificent sailing ground.

Perhaps it was because we where winning ;) Well first across the line anyway must count for something even if the handicap demons relgated us to 5th. All props and thanks to one of Bob's old sailing mates, John Douglas and Starsweeper.

On the way from the marina round at Inverkip you go past the power station they built in the early 70s. It, if you can believe it, is an oil burning power station - built just before the OPEC hike of the stagflation 70s it was only used once - during the Thacherite Coal Strike in the 1980s. They recently pulled the turbine out and sold it to a shipping company or something. The building sits there pathetically.

Also on the hill a little up the river toward Gourock you can see some long factory buildings set up with tax breaks in the 1990s (?) to make micro-chips. It was going to save the local economy but proved to be too expensive after the tax-breaks ended. Not much call for boutique microchips - not much room for market diversification. 'course if SARS really hits Taiwan they may get to start them up once more ;)