Waverley

The day has arrived for our cruise on the Waverley. According to the website this is the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world. 

The last time I was on the Waverley was from Milord Haven out to sea. Waverley may be seagoing, but in moderately rough sea not the most comfortable ship to be on.

No such problems today as the water is calm. The weather has improved immeasurably since yesterday, the day is warm and sunny. Largs is packed this morning, the car park near the ferry terminal overflowing. When the ship arrived and we were boarding it looked like the entire population of Largs was in the queue to board behind us.

Somehow the ship managed to take everybody on board and we set sail. The cruise took us over to Rothesay, around Bute on to Tarbert and into Loch Fyne. Thanks to the fine weather we were able to stay on the top deck during most of the seven hours of the cruise. Finally after about 6pm we decided it was getting a bit cool, and so we adjourned to the bar.

Having left Largs shortly after mid day we got back at around 7:30 pm. Although some people got off at some of the stops along the way, many people stayed on board for the entire cruise.