Sunset from the Isle of Wight

We left home at 9am to drive to Portsmouth for our ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight at 12pm and Laura the doggy sitter was due round later in the morning.  We had a very hot journey and the traffic was quite heavy, but we finally arrived at the ferry port at 11am, only to find out that our crossing was delayed until 12.30pm.  The time passed quickly though and fortunately we were parked under a shelter so were in the shade, and just after 12pm they moved us into the loading area.  

Alan asked me what car Chris and Tony had as he was sure he'd just seen them!  I knew they were coming to the Isle of Wight for a wedding at some point in July, but didn't think it was the same weekend as us, but said I'd go and see.  As I walked over to the car I saw them, so stood in front of the car waving - their faces were a picture lol!  Tony said he was about to say 'that person looks like Karen'!  Anyway, once on board we sat together for the journey, it was a very smooth crossing and it was very quick. We said our goodbye's, we may possible get to meet up with them over the weekend, but it depends on each other's plans and tomorrow they have the wedding.

We drove to our little Airbnb cottage which is one of the original beach houses in Gurnard and is over 100 years old.  It's very quirky but is clean and nice, has it's own little wildflower garden with a swing seat and is literally a couple of metres from the beach.  Once unpacked we walked along the promenade to Cowes which was a nice 30 minute stroll, we had a look around the town and then stopped for a drink before going to look round the racing yacht yard - they're pretty impressive!

Once back at the cottage I changed into my swimming costume and we headed down to the beach where I had a swim, the sea was so refreshing it was lovely after the heat of the day.  We then sat and watched the paddle boarders before heading back for dinner.  I prepared a curry, and while it was cooking we opened the bottle of champagne that Alan bought and sat in the swing seat, it was so peaceful and relaxing.

After we'd eaten we walked back down to the beach to watch the sunset, and it was pretty spectacular as you can see.  

We're looking forward to exploring more of the island over the next few days as this is a first for us, Alan's never been and I think I've only been once before when I was a child, but I don't remember anything about it.