Depature

I left work just before 5pm to head to The Island. After my delayed experience a couple of weeks ago, this week, I opted to travel via Waterloo, which avoids a change to Guildford. I'd looked at a week's performance of the non-Waterloo route and concluded I'd rarely make the interchange.

The journey was all on time, which was great, but as we approached Portsmouth, PY, I messaged to ask which ferry I was on as the website did not show a 7:20pm crossing. So, this week's delay was not train-related but Royal Navy-related - an aircraft carrier entered Portsmouth harbour at some point today, and all ferry timings were off.

I felt sorry for the man trying to field questions from the small crowd who'd raced from the train to the boat. The next scheduled FastCat was over an hour later. I asked about the car ferry to Fishbourne and was told it was also running late. When I checked the delay, I realised I could walk to the terminal, cross The Solent with the vehicle traffic, and still be on The Island before the next FastCat. So I walked around and was followed by a couple of others.

I didn't have long to wait before boarding. I raced to the cafe for a glass of wine and a snack before sitting on the deck and watching the Spinnaker Tower disappear behind me.