Ferry, across the Solent

Published on by mickyrichards1957

I was nine when I went on my first boat (I don’t count the Water Chute at Battersea Funfair).

The trip was the ferry to the Isle of Wight – I’d been given the I-Spy Book of High Security Prisons beforehand to occupy me.

At Portsmouth, I looked out thinking I could be the next Christoper Columbus – although hopefully travelling directly to Ryde, rather than confusing Jamaica with the coast of India.

I’d seen The Cruel Sea on TV and was fully prepared to encounter U-Boats.  The man helping behind the ferry shop looked a bit like Karl Döntiz, so I felt quite safe.

Because this was my first trip away from mainland England, I was anticipating seeing different flora and fauna on the Island.  Aside from different coloured sand at Alum Bay, not seeing any giant tortoises, Yeti or sabre-toothed tigers (I also had the I-Spy Book of Extinct Animals) was an anti-climax.  Although, the hotel food was prehistoric.

On the return trip I realised a life at sea was probably not for me – unless I was sponsored by Kwells.  So, imagine my horror, when stepping off the ferry back at Portsmouth, there was a press gang there.  Hello, sailor.

6 thoughts on “Ferry, across the Solent”

  2. I mother was a truly awful sailor and when my mum and dad were “courting”, dad took mum to see the Cruel Sea. There is a scene of sailors in the sea after their ship had been torpedoed and it is filmed at sea level. Mum had to get up and go to the Ladies as she was seasick 🤢.

    I am as equally bad and dad came home one day to say he had been speaking to the skipper of a trawler and had arranged for me to go on a fishing trip for 48 hours. Next day I am on the trawler in a Force 6 gale and after the 8th time of chucking up the skipper aka Captain Bligh said “we brought you with us to catch fish not to feed ‘em”. With that he despatched me below deck to cook the breakfast using a frying pan that contained about 1/4” of fat. Oh, whoopee.

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      1. there is a saying that for the first hour of seasickness you are hoping that you are not going to die, and the rest of the time hoping that you are. Believe me, that is true!

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