A windy day

Back to Yaverland for what has become an annual event. See reference 1 for a google snap not so far from the one included left.

It was not, however, a day for swimming, with a brisk wind from the south and plenty of cloud about, so we took a walk up the beach instead, eventually sheltering behind a rock for our picnic. Quite warm when one got out of the wind.

Beach looking very well, with quite a lot of sand blowing about, low down.

One chap with a parachute board and another with a sail board. Both seemed to be scudding about at a considerable speed, quite fast enough to hurt if one hit the water. The chap on the parachute board was, from time to time, whisked up into the air, from where, we thought, he might sometimes drop quite quickly. We wondered whether there was some kind of quick release for the parachute in the event that this last got out of hand.

Various ships to be seen, mostly cargo ships, some very large. But having been told about FCH (Floating Care Home) sailings by the local newspaper, we were looking out for one of those. First likely candidate, looking much larger on the horizon than it turned out to be, was actually a ferry from Brittany Ferries. Ditto second likely candidate. I got the hang of it by the third likely candidate. But it did all prove the convenience of a modern monocular: easy on the pocket, easy to hold steady and, only having one eye to bother about, easy to focus.

Writing now, I wonder whether it will ever be a commercial runner to anchor the FCH's in the Thames estuary, not bothering with the cruise business at all. Far enough off-shore that it was OK to use cheap labour from the Phillipines, but still near enough for the customers to be able to get on board without getting their feet wet. Rather in the way that the Essex marshes used to be home to prison hulks.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/in-praise-of-yaverland.html.

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