15th – 17th August – Monday to Wednesday
We spent three days at Yarmouth, really enjoying our time with Sally, Tony and children.
On Monday we spent the day at the Needles landmark attraction. We visited the Alum Bay Glass unit and watched the fascinating glass making demonstration. When we visited here in 2012 the weather was about 15 degrees cooler! We all took the breathtaking ride to the beach and back several times on the chairlift, except for Sally, who only did a one-way trip as sadly, she didn’t enjoy it one bit. We also swam in the sea here (except for Chris and Tony) which was very refreshing – about 18.5 degrees. Liam came back on the Breezer bus with us to the boat and all three of us enjoyed a tasty Indian takeaway.
On Tuesday we had lunch on the boat, after which we took the dinghy out from Yarmouth to a nearby beach where we enjoyed paddling, swimming or generally messing about in the water. Sometimes the most fun is had when doing the simplest things! Carole cooked off some sausages and bread to share for supper. Liam then spent a second night on the boat with us, which gave him a good night’s sleep and some peace and quiet.
On Wednesday the three of us took a 30 minute walk along to Fort Victoria where we met the others. After a picnic lunch, we followed an interesting nature trail uphill to where we had terrific clear views of the Solent across to the mainland. We had a stroll around and then walked back to the boat with Bobby while the others took part in a rock pool exploration walk with the Fort Victoria ranger. When we all met again on the boat, Sally, Tony and Liam had decided that they would try to return home on the ferry late evening instead of midday Thursday. Daniel and Bobby would be staying with us for a few days, so Carole made up their bed in the spare cabin and unpacked their bags into the cupboards. It’s amazing how quickly those cupboards filled up. We got a text to say that the ferry booking had been changed and around 9.30 pm we said our goodbyes to Sally, Tony and Liam who were already in the queue for the ferry. Bobby got a little bit teary-eyed saying goodbye, but we started to get a bit of light rain, so we quickly jogged back to the boat and all was fine. Both slept well and had to be woken next morning.