Beddie and The Cromarty Queen
Trip Start
May 11, 2011
1
132
188
Trip End
Jun 11, 2011
Cromarty, Scotland, United Kingdom
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
We just miss the Queen at Cromarty but she’ll be back in half an hour so I have a cup of tea and watch her ploughing across the incredibly choppy mouth of the firth and back again. The ferry sign says that they don’t take anything longer than 4 metres and Beddie is over 20ft so we are half expecting to be turned away. But no. it transpires that the sign is for the 'old’ ferry. (No one tells us what happened to the ‘old’ ferry.) The ‘new’ ferry is bigger and has a turntable to spin larger vehicles around when onboard so they can drive on and off without having to reverse. But Beddie is too big for the turntable so they ask us to reverse on. Sound’s simple doesn’t it but what you have to realise is that the water is so choppy that the Queen has to drive herself at an angle against the loading ramp and can only hold herself there for a limited time during which I have get Beddie onboard. Backwards.
On the first attempt I’m not straight and only get the back axle onboard before the tide starts to slew the Queen away from the shore at an insane angle. We accelerate back onto dry land and the ship comes round again. This time she’s not lined up with the loading ramp herself and goes out again for another shot.
On the third pass the ferry is straight, Beddie is straight, so we shoot backwards and then screech to a very sudden halt. We are onboard and already on out way across the Cromarty Firth.
I like this ship. It’s exciting.
Comments
Nice Star Trek reference at end...