Set Sail - we're off!

It's Mother's day and the boat is due to be tugged away to the dock yard at 10am. Yesterday we had a bit of a job removing the gang planks as they had almost welded themselves on with shear use. I estimate that since we opened in 1986 that over half a million people have crossed the gang planks to come and eat on the Glassboat, here's to the next half. It took 7 of us to get the final gang plank off, it was as if she didn't want to be disconnected, but we did in the end and heavy they are too.
After the Harbour master has come and linked up a couple of dwarfed tug boats we unleash the metal safety cables and with suspended breath the Glassboat is freely floating, not rolling over or sinking, the rocks are doing their jobs. 10 o'clock on the dot and the tug boats rev up all they can to shift the almighty weight of this 140 seater, managing after a couple of pensive minutes to generate some sort of momentum. The weather is great, blue sky and sunny, but the incoming north wind is strong and freezing which we thought could be a problem. The wind was bashing her around a bit and it could prove tricky for the already hard working tuggers to negotiate the narrow paths through Redcliffe bridge and Princes bridge.

They do a great job as the Glassboat is majestically sailing down the floating harbour, a very strange site indeed.