"Even putting the kettle on isn’t helping today."
Keith “Dougie” Douglas watched the news from his homeland for a while Thursday. When it suddenly felt like too much, he stepped outside.
For eight years during the ‘90s, Douglas was a member of the Royal Navy crew on Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia, which was used by Queen Elizabeth II for state visits and other travel. His favorite voyages were in late summer when the queen and other members of the royal family would board at Portsmouth and sail up the western coast of Great Britain, sometimes stopping to picnic on isolated beaches along the western Isles of Scotland. The trip would end in Aberdeen, where a Rolls Royce or Bentley would drive the Queen to Balmoral Castle in Scotland. “She’s said more than once being on board the Britannia was the only place she could really relax,” said Douglas, 63, who lives in east Hillsborough County. “I have shed some tears, having met her a few times and spoken to her a few times. It’s a wrench for everyone.” Many struggled to come to grips with the death of Queen Elizabeth, 96, who had been a constant, reassuring national figurehead and, for most, the only monarch they had ever known.Almost 80,000 people born in the United Kingdom call Florida home, including roughly 13,000 in the Tampa Bay region, according to the census.
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