Hovering Memories

I came across this short You-tube video the other day and it brought back some interesting memories.

My bride and I traveled on one of these strange contraptions back in the eighties when we were doing the obligatory young Australian exploring the UK and Europe thing.

I remember the unholy noise it made, the clouds of spray, and the thumping as the rubber skirts hit the swell.

We went from Dover to Calais in early August, and back again in late November.

Strangely, the sea state on the trip eastward was much worse than on the return journey, and took much longer than normal because we had to travel more slowly than the usual 40 to 60 knots.

This meant that the journey took an hour, rather than the 25 or 30 minutes that it should have.

We were driving a Bedford Dormobile at the time which we parked in the car hold, and then wandered into the cabin which was kitted out like a cross between an aircraft interior and a ship's seating deck.

This is the Dormobile

You couldn't see much from the cabin, as the spray obliterated any view.

Still, it was fast, and from memory, relatively cheap.

These machines were taken out of service in 2005.