No.35

Having snagged No.34 on arrival on the Isle of Wight a fortnight ago, snagged No.35 on departure, coming down East Hill Road onto the eastern end of the Ryde Esplanade. Much the same colour as our own car, but with paintwork looking, in this snap anyway, to be in much better condition.

The tide was well out, so took a walk out on the sand, which looked well in the bright morning light.

The Queen Elizabeth, or its twin, present at the Nab Anchorage yesterday, as seen from Yaverland, appeared to be missing this morning, as seen from Ryde. On the other hand, we had a rather odd looking ship which I was unable to make out: not tanker, not container and not cruise. Quite a lot of upper works just forward of the mid line. Maybe something with a blue flag from the RFA? I was too late when I checked the shipping sites at reference 2 on return to Epsom, as whatever it was seemed to have moved on and these sites don't do history.

On to Fishbourne where our ferry was five minutes late leaving. But I would say that loading and unloading is much faster than it was before they built the ramps to provide access to the upper car deck. Maybe so much faster that they were able to retire one of the ferries? Of which Wightlink now seem to have three to support the Portsmouth-Fishbourne service.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/no34.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/covid-news.html.