Fish and concrete

We had intended to pay a visit to Glasgow Botanics this morning before leaving Glasgow, even tho' the glasshouses don't open until 10am. Unfortunately I hadn't realised that on Sundays it was 12 noon, so we scrapped the idea and instead called in at GO Outdoors in Clydebank as I needed to buy some outdoor gear.

Not far away was this canal boat which I'd wanted to have a look at for a while. It's a fish and chip restaurant appearing to be moored to the side of the Forth & Clyde canal, but a closer look shows it to be firmly concreted in place! 

It was only on Googling it when we arrived home that I discovered that it is actually a real boat, built in Campbeltown shipyard in 1993 and towed up the Clyde into the F&C canal. Unfortunately at that time the canal had not been restored and 'Debra Rose' arrived within 400 metres of its proposed site where it could swim no more. It had to be cut into eight sections and taken up the road to the site and put back together again! Then when the canal reopened to boat traffic in 2000 the boat was no longer allowed to moor on the canal, so was filled with 100 tons of concrete to make sure she stayed where she was! That must have added to the cost!

Strong winds forecast again tonight - not looking forward to that!