Solent / Lymington social life

During the odd nice day, we managed the huge sea trip over to Cowes. Whilst on the mid river pontoon there, we had a phone call from Ray, the nice yottie man, telling us to put the kettle on. He had blatted from Chichester over to the Island as it was sunny and calm in his monster company RIB just for the fun of it. His fun ended when he saw us but he was happpy enough to consume tea and thaw out a little from his trip. Impressive RIB, but we are a little worried about what he was doing with his hands:

Despite his appearance on this photo, he isn't an East End 1950's spiv at all

We also saw Norman and Julie. Norman the motorhome / bobil man and Julie the labrador puppy person. Sadly most of the 6 puppies had already headed to their new homes but the crew still managed to have fun with the remaining couple:

Now that only one pup is left, their kitchen floor seems much drier.

After so much activity for old retired folks, a big decision. Where do you head for when preparing to head to Guernsey for fuel? First stop for departing the Solent has to be Lymington. Such a lovely spot with the added benefit of a nice hill to give you a cardiovascular workout when going to the shops. We pottered there from Gosport and spent a happy few days on the Dan Bran pontoon.

It was a busy place for visitors too. Anne made a bid for freedom from the offspring for a day and managed to get an overnight pass too. Hence, Izzy the salty seadog spent her first night on board and came through with flying colours, although she did look very happy when the captain took her ashore in the morning. Apparently giving her some scraps of some salmon and tuna for breakfast is a little over the top. She seems less keen on kibble at home now, we are in trouble.

John and Tina, the Isle of Wight dwellers, braved the ferry and came over for a day which became very sociable as we were dog sitting that day. We think that Tina liked Izzy. The pleading look from under the table at lunchtime clearly worked:

Preparing to leave the boat for a walk, Tina took a strong grip on her lead and said "Shall I take her then?" with that "challenge me if you dare" tone. We didn't.  We are not that brave.

The plans for a trip to Guernsey to fuel up also involved some other folks who are relatively regularly mentioned on here - Stephen and Alison, the Nauticat yotty types who are also trolley shopper owners on the quiet. Why were they involved? Because they had booked the forecabin for the run over to St Peter Port - kind of brave for yotties to be seen on a powerboat but they probably had suitable disguises prepared. Fate decided otherwise though - they both had the flu and so sadly had to cancel. However, so that they are not forgotten, you can enjoy some car porn instead - Stephen sent a picture of his rather nice Porsche Cayman:

Before you ask, yes it is always that clean....

To cap a most sociable time, John and Kath (the Broom 39 people, hope you are keeping up here) also popped in for tea and a chat. John has the honour (??) of meeting Princess Anne shortly at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club and his boat will be polished to within a micron of remaining gelcoat ready for her inspection. The power of royalty. When people join us on board, they have to help clean up.

Finally the kettle had a chance to go cold and we decided that it was time to depart (actually the wind had dropped which might have had a bearing on our decisions too).