Waverley’s Spring 2015
Report by Martin Longhurst
Waverley’s first outing was on 17 April 2015 to dry dock at Greenock.
She was towed by the tugs Battler and Biter to the Garvel Shipyard. She left dry dock on Monday 4 May and spent
the next few days at Custom House Quay prior to engine trials. After these trials and compass adjusting, she
steamed back to Glasgow under own power.
There she underwent final preparations leading up to the start of the
season on 21 May. First of all on that day there was a Reception at noon for
invited guests, including the Lord Provost of Glasgow Sadie Docherty, to mark
the start of her 40th year of operation in preservation. Speeches were given by the Lord Provost, WSN
Chairman Lawrie Sinclair and PSPS Chairman Iain Dewar. At 2.30 p.m. she offered a public cruise to
view Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 at Greenock. At 7.30 p.m. there was a second cruise
to Greenock to view the departure of the Cunarder and
the accompanying spectacular fireworks to celebrate Cunard’s 175th
Anniversary. The QM2 signalled the start
of the fireworks by sounding the whistle of her 1936 namesake which is
permanently installed on board with its own boiler. It is worthy of mention that Waverley often
tendered to Cunard’s liner Carinthia at the Tail Of The Bank in 1950s and 1960s
when proudly flew the Cunard house flag.
The following day the steamer sailed from Glasgow to the mouth of Loch Goil after calling at Helensburgh,
Largs and Dunoon with a moderate load, predominately
from Largs. May 23 saw the paddler give
her normal Saturday schedule to Tighnabruiach and
this sail attracted strong support.
Sunday’s timetable was a special trip to mark the 40th
Anniversary of her first public sail in preservation. This took Waverley to Largs, Rothesay, Tighnabruaich, Tarbert and
towards Ardishaig, the latter being the last calling
point of the 1975 cruise. The steamer
was piped into Tarbert Pier by the Mid-Argyll Pipe
Band. Again this sailing was well supported from Largs. On Bank Holiday Monday 25 May she operated
her normal Friday schedule to Rothesay and this trip was well supported.
Waverley looked smart with newly repainted funnels and hull. One disappointment was the abandonment of
scumbling on the deck houses owing to the high cost of maintenance and these
are now painted a plain brown to match the ventilators and fiddleys. Another change is the use of orange
lifebelts.
The excitement was palpable on Tuesday morning as Waverley set sail
from Glasgow and Greenock for her Western Isles season. However, it was not to be. Before travelling north I had watched Carol
Kirkwood’s TV weather forecast and she promised high winds starting on the
Tuesday and continuing through the week.
Approaching Campbeltown Captain O’Brian
announced that he was going to have to terminate the sailing there as the
forecast was for Force 6 winds and as our intermediate port of refuge (Port
Ellen) was closed to Calmac. Coaches were arranged to take passengers
either on to Oban or back to Glasgow and Greenock but as most of the coaches
had to come from Troon, they could not leave until 5
o’clock. Passengers could remain on
board for shelter and refreshment or go ashore.
This proved useful as many booked onward travel by CityLink
coach from Oban to Kyle of Lochalsh at the nearby
Tourist Information Centre in the hope that the steamer would eventually get
there. Another popular diversionary route was by train to Mallaig
via Crianlarich, by ferry to Armadale
and finally by service bus to Kyle.
In the event, Waverley was unable to proceed further west than Campbeltown as the forecast of strong winds continued in
force and after a short calm spell on Saturday May 30, another large storm was
due to move in. So on the Friday the
decision was reluctantly taken to cancel the remainder of the programme and
return the steamer to her Glasgow base.
In fact, the weather around Skye and Oban did remain cold, windy and
rainy apart for the one day. Waverley is
due to resume service on 20 June 2015.
Another anniversary of note occurred on May 29 as 65 years earlier
Waverley’s namesake was sunk by enemy action while taking part in the Dunkirk
evacuation.
However, every cloud has a silver lining as the Western Isles Friends
of Waverley took the opportunity to investigate other places and trips in the
area. Four of us clubbed together to hire a car and proceeded north by a
devious route taking in Port Appin and the Kylerea car ferry.
The next day we sampled the hybrid car ferry Hallaig
to explore all the roads on the Isle of Raasay. Then the following day back to
Oban via the Armadale and Corran
ferries, stopping en route to see The Jacobite steam
train pass by.
We then invested in a Calmac Rover ticket,
sailing on the Lord of the Isles to Lochboisdale on
Saturday and to Coll, Tiree
and Colonsay on Sunday. The trip to South Uist
was glorious but the Sunday trips were lively even in a large stabilised ship
and had been subject to cancellation and disruption. Amber alert continued on
Monday so we did the short trips to Craignure and Lismore.
For some pictures of the proceedings please visit my Flickr
site.