Today we attended a funeral, locally, of a man in the Clyde Cruising Club who we had known both through sailing and through his profession as a civil engineer. It was - everyone agreed - a good send-off. The eulogy was quite long and full of funny stories all of which we in the sailing fraternity could relate to.
Iain and I both had our stories:
Iain recalls being at a CCC committee meeting some years ago and noticed this man who was sitting beside him was in a business suit but had mud on his shoes. "He could only be an engineer." Spot on!
I recently bumped into this man as he stood on the Helensburgh street front leaning on his bicycle while he talked to a lady who minds the china shop. Both were gazing out to sea watching a man rowing a small wooden boat in the direction of the pier. The lady was concerned about him as he had set off from Rhu Marina 2 hours ago and should have arrived by this time. Upon asking who he was it turns out he was a salty dog of great age who had spent many years at sea. I reckoned there was not much reason to worry!
Deja Vu
Mingling with the departing crowd as we made our way out through people waiting to enter for the next crematorium service, I caught a waft of good ol' Dewars (whisky)! It took me back to the days of attending funerals in Gairloch, Achilitbuie and Lochawe where there was always the strong smell of mothballs mixed with Dewars!
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