Every so often I meet with a couple of mates and we go to the pub or someplace and sort out life. It’s very cathartic and I’d recommend it to anyone. So I turned up at mate no.1′s house and expected a cup of coffee, maybe some biccies and a right old chin-wag. Bit of a surprise when he said to mate no.2 and I, “You fancy going over to the Island on a speedboat?”. To which we replied in the affirmative of course. “How about now?” he said. Now that was  bit more of a surprise because I knew none of us had a boat, so this was going to take some doing. Turns out a mutual acquaintance at church had a boat which had been made available. Not as hard as I was anticipating then.

Being a boat lover, I really didn’t have to think about it, so we piled waterproofs into his van and set off for the quay. If you don’t know it, the quay at Lymington is where visiting yachties tend to tie up and so I had to try to look like I really knew what I was doing getting into the inflatable dinghy. This is where I came across what I will call the Off The Cuff Boating Rule. Viz, if you are wearing glasses and don’t have a chain or other means of preventing slippage, take them off and put them in a zipped pocket. Whilst the risk of watery loss is real, the risk of not concentrating where you are putting your feet because you are concerned about loss is even greater. And so it transpired. If you don’t know anything about inflatables, you need to know that the gunwale, or gun’l or gunnel is a bit thicker on an inflatable than a rigid hull. The reason this is relevant is because it is the top of the hull that you have to climb over to get into a boat. Or in the case of a small inflatable when not concentrating, slip down from the floating dock. Doesn’t help the aforementioned attempt at credibility, but as the Americans say, no foul, no penalty as long as your mate is holding the boat, and you stop slipping when you reach the bottom of the boat.

So short distance of rowing by committee got us to the Rib (rigid inflatable, bottom of hull rigid, sides inflated). With no further embarkation incidents, we started out for the Solent. Within the confines of the harbour there is a strict speed limit due to wash but once passed the yacht haven the two main things you have to watch out for are the depth of water and the Wightlink ferries. One potentially grounds you, the other potentially sinks you. On the way out of Lymington you absolutely have to stick to the channel as even a little outside the depth gets down to 1 metre very quickly. And if your Rib has a 1.4 metre draft, that’s uncomfortably close for comfort.

Once out in the open Solent betwixt mainland and Island, there were very few boats around so it was possible to push the speed up a tad. Now in the past I have sailed in the Solent and have not appreciated the Miami Vice wannabees in fast motor boats hitting the throttle hard with no thought for the consequences. So as a result I have to be careful not to be a back-seat driver. Though to be honest any aggrieved tutting would be swiftly carried away by the wind anyway, but in fact mate no.1 is a generally sensible fellow, to I stored my un-needed tuts up for a more suitable occasion.  Since it was early evening before we set out, we didn’t have a great length of time as my iPhone told me that sunset was due at Bournemouth around 9:15 and that was the nearest place I could get a sunset time on. Figured it was closer than a few of the other options. Weird thing was that 3G signal was better in between the mainland and the Island than it is in town.

So with the sun starting to set and our navigation lights on, we made back for the quay.  Chuntering through the moorings on the way back with the beginnings of a red-tinged sunset ahead, I was struck with the thought that this is one of the things we could never do in London. I have been on the Thames where we used to live and it’s enjoyable enough, but with the spray in your face, the open(ish) sea ahead and a poetic bent, your spirit lifts and your soul gets renewed. And you remember why you like living in Lymington. Now if I could get the use of a Rib on a more consistent basis…..