Read RICK JACKSON
‘Are they going to use her for target practice?’ my son asked
Christmas Day part two normally happens for us on Boxing Day, but after re-scheduling the ferry five times, we were finally able to use the booking. Strange times indeed, but as lockdown was relaxed, my folks have had their first jabs and we as a family are testing for Covid twice a week and testing negative, we were confident.
So, a different kind of ferry crossing to the island was finally taken. Wightlink’s newest ferry Victoria of Wight was eerily quiet.
The top passenger deck, where the Costa Coffee outlet would normally see me queuing for a flat white, was cordoned off.
So with only one deck open and just one part of the outside deck accessible it still felt very much like life had not returned to normal.
Thankfully my folks’ garden is a sun trap and with plenty of warm sunshine it wasn’t too much of an issue enjoying the weather in their back garden.
The kids seemed to have forgotten all about Christmas so couldn’t believe their luck when they opened Hot Wheels and Baby Annabel gifts that had been waiting under the tree since December 25.
Even my wife Sarah was over the moon with her bottle of Isle of Wight Mermaid gin and accompanying glass, a very important part of enjoying gin apparently?
Soon it was time to head home. Both decks on the return ferry St Clare were open, but again Costa was boarded up.
The strangeness of the crossing continued when a tatty looking Queen Mary 2 majestically sailed past, empty and with nowhere to go, treading water like a ghost ship. One of the world’s biggest, most expensive and luxurious ships, bringing home to all on the ferry how our lives have been put on hold.
Just as our ferry turned off Southsea to head into Portsmouth Harbour, my six-year-old son Freddie spotted the two giant aircraft carriers docked in the harbour. He looked back to Queen Mary 2 just sitting there. ‘Are they going to use her for target practice?’ he said.
That would make it the world’s biggest, most expensive and luxurious sitting duck!