NOT all went according to plan yesterday when the Princess Royal named Scotland's only international cruise ship at the port of Leith.
Princess Anne, whose eight-year marriage to Commodore Tim Laurence recently has been the subject of speculation, needed a helping hand when the champagne bottle failed to break against the Glasgow-registered MV Hebridean Spirit, which has undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment.
Barry Utton, who worked with the company responsible for refitting the interior, retrieved the bottle and sent it crashing into the hull of the new vessel, a sister ship to the company's flagship MV Hebridean Princess, the former Oban to Mull ferry.
Minutes earlier, members of the platform party including lord provost Eric Milligan, who had been awaiting the royal visitor's arrival on the quayside after her tour of the cruise ship, received an unexpected wetting from a tug giving a water display.
There were about 250 guests, including Ken Bates, the chairman of Chelsea football club and a major shareholder in Altnamara Shipping plc, the parent company of Hebridean Island Cruises, for the naming ceremony and a champagne lunch on board the Hebridean Spirit.
Staffed by British officers, the 4200-tonne vessel will accommodate 78 guests in 49 cabins for cruises ranging from #2660 to #16,570 per person. This summer, it will visit the Baltic and Italy, and later in the year it will tour the Greek islands before make for the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Meanwhile, the Queen - who is reported to have told Commodore Laurence to be at his wife's side at a royal engagement in Edinburgh today - and the Duke of Edinburgh hosted a garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse yesterday afternoon.
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