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Thursday 24 November 2011

Percy Tate riding "Son of Slippery Sam"



In 1976 Alex and I went to the Isle of Man TT. We went on our Triumph Daytona 500 motorcycle and camped. We had a really good time. One of the highlights was seeing Percy Tate riding "Son of Slippery Sam" the racing version of Triumph’s Trident.

The sketch above is of Percy and Slippery Sam about a mile before they parted company in a serious accident,which unfortunately ended his career.

When we left the Isle of Man we queued up to have our bike hoisted by derrick onto the deck of a ship straight out of the Onedin Line. When we were next but one to have our bike hoisted up the stevedores attached a lovely BMW onto the hoist and promptly lost it into Ramsey harbour. This did nothing for our nerves and certainly the owner was less than pleased!

Having got on the boat we were immediately given brown paper bags. This was a bit odd as the water was calm and there was no wind. However when we got out of the shelter of the harbour the boat went up the crest of a wave and didn’t stop going down until everyone had stopped screaming. It was a real good gale. I didn’t see Alex for the rest of the voyage as she went to lie down. I think pretty well everyone on board was seasick (fortunately I was fine). But the smells and scenes were less than edifying.


Today Alex went Christmas shopping with her mom in Cardiff and I stayed at home blowing my nose and feeling sorry for myself!

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