I won’t say too much about this one. Instead, I will let the image do the talking. I hope it shows up large enough to read on here. A gravestone that is in Winchester Cathedral grounds tells the tale of the death of a soldier. Apparently, he should have stuck with stronger beer. Heed this lesson everyone!
While walking on my regular route around the nature reserve, I saw a hoodie that someone had left on the fence. I imagined that there was a chance that they would come back this way and find it and was going to move on but then I saw a shape on the fabric which enticed me to look closer. This spider had taken up residence on the hoodie and seemed quite at home in the sun. I don’t know spider species so have no idea what this is, but it looked rather fascinating.
After her time on the beach, the Griffon Hoverwork team took Solent Express back out to sea. Once on the water, they proceeded to give a demonstration of the manoeuvrability of the craft as they spun her around on the spot and then sped up to make a few passes. Despite her size, it was made to look easy to control her direction and to pivot in next to no space. Given that this is all done with the ducting of the rear fans and the two front nozzles whilst countering some wind, it was most impressive.
They then came back ashore which I hadn’t expected. There were a few people onboard that need to disembark before the hovercraft departed so we got another view of the landing and departure before they headed out to see and back up the Solent in the direction of their base at Ryde. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.
Back to last summer and I was out on the bike for a ride. I was doing a climb over a hill in Bighton and, once I came over the summer, I descended along a road that crosses the Watercress Line. I stopped to have a drink while sitting on the bridge and heard a diesel approaching. It turned out that it was the weekend of their diesel gala and I had timed my arrival well.
A couple of guys were in the process of taking a loco out of the sidings while a train was heading back towards Alresford. I am not a specialist when it comes to diesels but even I can read the number on the side. This was apparently a Class 46 pulling a train of customers. It was entering the station at Ropley and this is one of the passing places on the line so I figured there was a chance another train would be coming the other way.
This proved to be the case. I think the loco coming the other way is a Western but might be mistaken so be gentle in the comments if this is wrong. As it pulled out of Ropley, the air above it was black with sooty smoke. These older locos are definitely not clean burning! Since it was accelerating uphill, it was working hard – hence the serious darkening of the sky! With it on its way, I had taken enough rest, and it was time to continue on my ride.
This year, Wightlink has celebrated its 100th anniversary. I know they were making some noise about it on social media, and they were flying pennants from the ferries, but I don’t know what else that they were doing to celebrate the event. When I was down on the coast, I decided to wander across and see some of the ferries in action. I wandered around to the side of Spice Island that overlooks the Gunwharf terminal.
Behind me was a view of the old slipway at Camber that they used when I was a kid. I don’t know when they closed this facility down and moved across to the larger space at Gunwharf, but I do have strong memories of waiting on the slipway at Camber as a small kid. In those days – when it was Sealink – the ferries would have a large ramp that came right down onto the slipway unlike the current level loading system (which is much better). You were able to walk down to the water’s edge while waiting and, in the dark, it could be quite a spooky place. One evening my dad managed to get us on the bridge of Cuthred which was quite a thrill for a small boy.
All three of the car ferries were in service on this holiday weekend. It was certainly windy, but they seemed to be doing fine handling the conditions. The Wight Ryder passenger ferries were also heading back and forth between Ryde Pier and Portsmouth Harbour. Watching the skill with which they manoeuvre these large ferries into the narrow entrance to the terminal is very impressive. I also love the way in which they come into the harbour and then pivot the boat on the spot as they line up. Great control of such a large vessel.
The oldest of the three boats is St Faith. The last of four of the Saint class, I don’t know how long she has before she will go the way of her sister ships. I remember St Catherine coming into service – she was known as the Super Ferry when introduced! St Faith was approaching the coast when I was along at Southsea, and she took a wide route in as a result of outbound traffic and then was thrown into a tight turn. The photo might hint at this with the heal that she has on as they turned but it looked far more dramatic in person.
I won’t forget the Yarmouth to Lymington service. Not one that I have made much use of but definitely part of the business. When the Saint class ferries arrived in Portsmouth, Caedmon was cascaded across to this service to join Cenwulf and Cenred. Now they have all be replaced by the current Wight class. Good luck to Wightlink for the next century of service. I’m sure we shall be using it regularly.
Last year, my posts included some bluebells in the woods. Well, it is that time again and guess what. More bluebell photos. We have actually been to two sets of woods to see the bluebells. The first was Micheldever Woods. A popular spot for bluebell hunters as it is one of Hampshire’s best known spots for them. We also did a return to Hinton Ampner to see the flowers there too. I won’t say which is which because, let’s face it, bluebells in a wood look much the same. Here are a few of the combined shots I have got this year.
In a previous post, I discussed how the hovercraft, Solent Express, made a visit to the beach at Lee on Solent. Once they had parked her on the beach, the public was encouraged to come and have a look around her. Plenty of people took the opportunity! She is a large hovercraft compared to the ones that run the Ryde-Southsea service with a capacity of 130 passengers. Her size is apparent when up close. Also, because she was on the slope of the shore and on a ridge, there was a large drop from the bow to the ground making her look even more sizeable.
There was plenty of time to have a look around. I got both close and also up on the embankment above the beach to get a wider view. Having so many people walking about really gave some scale to her. She was a little way out of the water when she landed, and the stern was on the beach. However, the tide was coming in and, by the time they departed, this was well in the water. More of that at a later stage.
I did get to take a look at some of the design features. The skirt is an integral part of the hovercraft and, while it looks flexible and flimsy from a distance, when you get close up and see how thick it is and how it is joined together, you appreciate it is a lot sturdier than it initially appears. Given the conditions that is has to experience, this really shouldn’t be such a surprise.
The ducted props at the rear are substantial. The props are large and the ducts with their flaps for directing the flow are big pieces of engineering. The carbon fibre drive shafts looked particularly cool to someone with an engineering background. All in all, she was quite the craft.
We bought tickets for an orchestral performance of The Planet Suite at Winchester Cathedral. It was still daylight when we went in before the start of the event but, by the time it was over, it was dark outside. The illumination on the cathedral was really nice and the ability of a modern phone to compile an image in those conditions still amazes me. I stitched together some shots to make this image. I also took a few inside the cathedral between the parts of the performance. Low light really does make for more interesting shots.
I had noticed Farley Mount on a map when randomly looking at what is the area around Winchester but hadn’t planned a specific visit to it. Then, one afternoon, I was riding through the area and saw the sign to the car park. I wasn’t in any great hurry so decided to divert to take a look. There is a track that runs from the car park up to the structure and, since it was pretty quiet, I rode up there on my bike. The surface was rough, but my new bike has bigger tyres, and it seemed to be fine.
Apparently, the monument is to a horse that fell into a pit while out hunting but survived and went on to win a race. Seems like quite a strange thing to create such a large monument to but landowners have built far stranger things over the years (and still do), so why question it too much. The top of the structure is a pyramid shape. With plenty of trees growing up around it, it was a touch tricky getting an angle with the light that I liked but, since this was mid bike ride, I wasn’t working hard on the shot options. Time to get back on the road and continue home.
I saw a post online about something coming to Lee on Solent near the Hovercraft Museum on a Saturday morning. A silhouette was posted which looked like it might have been Solent Express. This is a hovercraft that was built nearly twenty years ago and operated for a while on the Ryde-Southsea route with Hovertravel. It is a BHT130 and was found to be too large for the route and not commercially suited to the operation. In 2011 it was laid up pending an alternative operator being found. Since then, it has been stored at varying locations. I got photos of it when it was originally in operation and had wondered whether I might see it stored but hadn’t really pursued that idea.
Then, recently some images of it showed up on the pad at Ryde as it was being used for some testing and demonstration ahead of a potential sale to a new customer. The idea that it might be the subject of the Saturday event seemed pretty plausible. Sure enough, the announcement was made that it would come to the shore at Lee on Solent, everyone would be able to get a good look at it on the beach, then it would do a short demo on the water before heading off. I figured that this was definitely something I would like to do. Sure, I had a guest for the weekend, but they weren’t going to miss me for a few hours.
The weather was pretty ideal. The sun was out but the air temps weren’t very high. A bit of a breeze but nothing too serious. I wasn’t sure how busy it was going to be so got there in plenty of time to scope it out and find a location. I had plenty to work with. People gradually drifted in but there was never a completion for space. I decided to start out slightly up the bank near the slipway for the arrival. I would change later on.
While the hovercraft wasn’t due in until 10:15, it was visible for quite a while before. I saw it off in the distance heading in and thought it was going to be early, but they were busy doing some manoeuvring out in the Solent and weren’t coming ashore just yet. It wasn’t too long to wait, though. Soon they were heading for the beach. I was split in my mind about what I wanted to get. I love stills but the motion of a hovercraft really shows well in video. I decided video would be the main focus, but I would get as many stills as I could. Fortunately, unlike aircraft, hovercraft are not so fast that you can’t switch back and forth without creating a massive disconnect in the video timeline.
There was a large ridge in the shingle on the beach, but a hovercraft doesn’t have any issue transitioning such a discontinuity. They pulled up on to the beach and then settled down. A shorter time while they shut down and then the beach was back open to allow everyone to get a closer look. I think I am spending enough time on this post already, so I am going to split it into multiple parts. More to come.