Tag: dinghy

A Knight’s Tale (109: Ferry Across The Solent)

A 1968 Isle of Wight holiday featured in https://derrickjknight.com/2021/10/12/a-knights-tale-49-shanklin/

It will soon become clear why a day trip taken with Elizabeth, Rob, Adam, and Danni in the mid 1980s is somewhat hazy in my mind. In fact given the haziness of my mind on that occasion this is probably an accurate presentation. Jessica, Sam, Louisa, and I were spending a weekend with my sister and her family at The Firs, in Hampshire’s West End, when we decided to take a ferry trip to the island.

I woke in the morning feeling decidedly groggy and nevertheless, not prepared to put the kibosh on the day, insisted on continuing with the plan. It was probably on the journey over that, wrapped in a blanket I dozed in the bar downstairs – probably on the way back, too. All I remember is a quartet of children queuing to ask for money to feed the food and drink dispensing machines. Head buried beneath the blanket, I would stretch out an arm, on the end of which was a handful of coins. This was gradually stripped clean.

When we arrived wherever we found ourselves I staggered into the nearest churchyard, fell onto a generously proportioned gravestone, and slept soundly until the others returned from whence they had wandered.

We next stayed with our friends Sarah and Howard at Bembridge in August 2000. On their local beach

Jessica and Heidi towed Emily and Oliver in our dinghy;

Howard helped Jessica into their small yacht,

while Michael took over dinghy duties.

While there we took a trip to Sandown’s Yaverland Beach. Is this a special stone Emily is displaying?

Jessica tows Emily and Oliver in the dinghy;

then Oliver romps on the sand with his Dad who rows him out to sea.

Although we now live so close to the Isle I have never visited it since.

Yaverland

Today we welcomed steady incessant rainfall which took me back to scanning another set of prints from the Bembridge holiday of August 2000. These are a record of a trip to Sandown’s Yaverland Beach.

Is this a special stone Emily is displaying?

Jessica tows Emily and Oliver in the dinghy;

then Oliver romps on the sand with his Dad who rows him out to sea.

A stack of herons populated a nearby field.

Late this afternoon there seemed to be a deceptive lull in the rainfall so we took a trip to Mudeford Quay which was somewhat damper than it ought to be,

A row of juvenile gulls were seen off from a shed roof; one, rather vociferous, was permitted to stay.

A bicycle had been dropped beside a fine crop of windfalls beneath an apple tree on the verge of Derritt Lane, Sopley.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s piquant cauliflower cheese; succulent fish pie; moist ratatouille and firm cabbage, with which I finished the Baturrica,

Bembridge

Jackie rose early this morning and sat in a chair on the patio with a cup of instant coffee.

In an instant Nugget was on a paving stone peering hopefully up at the rim of the cup.

Now, “Where’s Nugget?” (16).

Today’s weather was blustery and damp. The Test Match was delayed until after lunch. I spent the afternoon listening to the BBC Sport broadcast and scanning the first batch of a set of prints from negatives I have lost from a holiday with friends in August 2000. This was at the home of Sarah and Howard at Bembridge. Although we live so near the Isle of Wight this was the last time I visited it.

Jessica and Heidi towed Emily and Oliver in our dinghy;

Howard wandered

along the shore

and helped Jessica into their small yacht,

while Michael took over dinghy duties.

The skies had brightened a bit by the end of the afternoon when we visited Otter Nurseries to buy two more bags of compost and somehow came away with four more phlox plants and another bag of tulip bulbs. We continued on for a short forest drive.

Many of the verges, like these along Sandy Down, are already carpeted with cyclamen.

This gnarled fungus has more right to be there than

this shiny drink can.

Moody skies glowered over Sway Tower.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s spicy chicken jalfrezi and boiled rice, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank El Zumbido Garnacha Syrah 2017.