Our first boating day got off to a pretty intense start. Black Prince Holidays does a very thorough handoff before releasing you into the wild. Most of it was a repeat for us from our previous trips, but it was good for Ann and Bob to get such a full introduction. Our 2 boats are Lyra (for John and Rachel) and Patsy (for Ann and Bob). Before leaving for this trip we had put in a grocery order with the local Tesco, and that was waiting for us at the marina when we arrived. This made our initial stock up so easy!

Immediately after leaving the dock, we had to negotiate a lock and then the Falkirk Wheel, so we each had a crew member on board for this. Locks and bridges on the Scottish canals are manned by canal volunteers, as opposed to our trips in England where we operated the locks and opened bridges ourselves. They have their own system for this, and having the crew helped us figure that out.

The Falkirk Wheel is a popular attraction, with tour boats running on a regular schedule. Once the wheel was free, we drove both boats in and took the 4 minute ride to the top. It was quite spectacular! Originally there were 10 locks on this stretch of canal to connect the Forth & Clyde canal with the Union Canal. Now this giant Ferris wheel carries boats up and down in water-filled carriages. It’s an engineering marvel!

Ann and Bob were hoping to follow our lead, but their boat was sent out of the wheel first and immediately faced a tunnel and set of 2 locks. They heard “it will be fine” a lot during their handover – and it was true (although Ann did get wet in the big lock).

From the top of the locks, it’s clear puttering through to Edinburgh. After about an hour, we pulled over alongside the tow path for lunch, then continued on to Linlithgow. Unfortunately, the visitor moorings in town were occupied, so we found a fairly accessible section of bank to drive our stakes in and moor for the night. This canal is quite weedy, and a lot of the bank approach is clogged with weeds. Our planks worked well to get us off and on the boats.

Many of these small towns along the canal have grocery stores within walking distance. This makes shopping easy and we can stock up for the next day or two. Dinner our first night was burgers cooked and served on Lyra. We’ll take turns cooking and also eat out some nights.

From Linlithgow to Edinburgh will take about 6 hours in the boats. We’ll split that into 2 days, with a short cruise Friday morning to get us into the city with plenty of time for exploring in the afternoon. Thursday morning we took a taxi from Linlithgow to Blackness Castle. The castle is situated on a spit of land that juts into the Firth of Forth, and it was windy! We climbed lots of winding stairs and walked along the top walls of this 15th century fortress.

After lunch we set off again towards Edinburgh, making it to Broxburn where we found very nice mooring accommodations. No planks needed tonight! An afternoon ice cream treat and dinner at a very nice Indian restaurant completed our day. Tomorrow we’ll be in Edinburgh for lunch!