Up the lifeboat

About a fortnight ago, to Bembridge, between Ryde and Culver Down. A place where we are accustomed to walking the smart new lifeboat pier and taking crab sandwiches in the pleasant café next door. But not so accustomed, as we appear to have given the place a miss in 2019, with the report below coming from 2018. And I am pleased to say that OneNote, used for taking notes at or near the time, told the same story.

On the way passed two large herds of lycra clad cyclists. First herd ladies in pink; second herd gentlemen in blue. Not clear whether we had a club ride or some kind of charity event.

Arriving at Bembridge, we found that the café had been shut, seemingly the victim of the freeholder wanting to develop the site, except that the development appeared to have stalled at the half way point. Meantime, the café chap has acquired a caravan and was running a rather smaller operation from that at the back of the car park. The lifeboat pier was shut, but the landside lifeboat shed was open and attended by a lifeboatman who was happy to tell stories to the curious.

To the north we had a flashy looking boat, which a likely looking passer by told us had once belonged to Abramovitch, the man who has Chelsea FC as a toy. Or perhaps a trophy. Its distinctive radar domes and subsequent investigation suggested that it was 'Le Grande Bleu'. Built (in Germany, Britannia Rules the Waves notwithstanding) for an American in 2000, then taken on by Abramovitch who subsequently lost it in a bet with his mate Shvidler. Now on his fourth yacht after that.

The idea was that we would walk to Whitecliff Bay, but the state of the tide meant that we had to take the coastal path, which south of the pier ran through a housing estate of the better sort, with at least one house sporting some Echiums escaped from Ventnor Botanic Garden. A plant and a place I notice from time to time, for example at reference 3.

Onto a more or less empty beach with a bit of a breeze and a fine collection of run down but rather outlandish beach huts. I associated to the beach huts and beach life of Dungeness - a place we have visited but did not notice the huts, despite remembering about them. See reference 4.

A fair number of swallows and swifts. Zigzagging along the strip of sand between the stones and the water seemed to be their modus operandi. They must like it here as we have seen them there before. But no egrets, divers, buzzards or kites on this occasion. Against that, we had seen one or two red squirrels in the course of cutting through the estate behind the lifeboat pier. The first time for years, since 2011 in fact. And only the third time altogether, despite having been coming to the island since well before I retired in 2006. See references 6 and 7.

By now the tide was going out and we were able to return along the shore, with its interesting ledges. The lifeboat shed at the end of the pier just visible left in the snap above. Whitecliff Bay abandoned.

Found that the caravan did do crab sandwiches, so that did very well for lunch.

On the way home checked the green at St. Helens, for the bookshop called 'Mother Goose' that we have used there. Shut up for redecoration, but the very substantial two sided bookcases were still there, so we will take another look next year. A place which seems to exist in memory rather than in visits, with the last mention, at reference 5, being of not visiting the place.

PS: I recall reading of an experiment by Charles Fernyhough which involved wearing a camera, perhaps mounted on breast or forehead, a camera which took a picture every so often, perhaps every 30 seconds or so. The story that I remember is that if one browses these pictures later, perhaps a month later, it is surprising how much comes back. Stuff which had otherwise been forgotten. This doesn't seem to work very well with 'Camera Roll' on my telephone. Perhaps the pictures there are too intermittent, too sparse to achieve the effect that Fernyhough reports. A chap who pops up around a dozen times, with the earliest such pop being reference 2.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/07/shady-corner.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/07/madeleine-moments.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/echium-pininana.html.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=dungeness.

Reference 5: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/back-to-bembridge.html. But at least 'War and Peace' has been visited since this post.

Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=red+squirrel. The first two posts being the red ones.

Reference 7: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2006/12/ritters.html. Probably the first notice of holiday in the Isle of Wight, although we had been going there for some years before that.