Queen's jubilee flotilla sails down River Thames

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

Britain's Queen Elizabeth joined an armada of 1,000 vessels and more than a million cheering spectators on Sunday to celebrate her 60th year on the throne with the most dazzling display of pageantry seen on London's River Thames for 350 years.

Pealing bells greeted the start of the flotilla as the queen's gilded royal barge sailed alongside a colorful and eclectic array of boats from leisure cruisers and yachts to rowing boats, a Hawaiian war canoe and Venetian gondolas.

Organizers said 1.2 million people, many waving "Union Jack" flags, braved typically inclement British weather to catch a glimpse of the procession along the seven mile (11 km route) as riverbanks were turned in a blur of red, white and blue.

After four hours on the river, much of it spent standing to review the flotilla passing by, the 86-year-old monarch was still smiling and showing a resolute "British stiff upper lip" as the event concluded in driving rain with a bitter wind.

Elizabeth, her 90-year-old husband Prince Philip and the other senior royal family members even jigged in time to the strains of "Rule Britannia" as the last vessel carrying an orchestra and drenched singers serenaded her.

Up and down the country, millions of people attended diamond jubilee street parties in honor of the sovereign, the only British monarch after Queen Victoria to have sat on the throne for 60 years.

The flotilla passed under 14 bridges and past landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London.