Making memories

A long, long time ago, I was on this magnificent machine on a trip to France in the early 1990s. Maybe not this very machine, I don't know, but I have a 50/50 chance because they only made two like it. This one is the sole surviving SR.N4 mk.III hovercraft, The Princess Anne. Her counterpart, The Princess Margaret, was scrapped in 2018 when she could no longer be stored, although the cross-Channel hovercraft services ended 24 years ago.

It seemed huge when I was onboard then, and it's still huge now. Mostly what I remember is how far off the ground it is, and how much higher we rose up – a good 12 feet higher! – when the Captain pulled back all the way on his control yoke! Thanks to the volunteers at the Hovercraft Museum in Portsmouth, I am now an expert in how to fly one*.

* in theory