Five Find a Lost Island - Pt 2 Nemesis in the Vectis

There was a little silence as the FOF looked out over the bay to where the island lay in the distance. The tide was going out. It almost looked as if they could wade over to the island. Dick asked if it was possible.

"No," said George. "I told you- it's only possible to get to it by ferry boat. It's farther out than it looks-and the water is very, very deep. There are yachts all about too - you have to know exactly where to steer a boat, or you bump into them. It's a dangerous bit of coast here. There are a lot of wrecks about." 

"Wrecks!" cried Julian, his eyes shining, "I say! I've never seen an old wreck. Are there any to see?" "Not now," said George. "They've all been cleared up. Except one...

From Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton (with minor misappropriations...)

Last week we left the FOF adventurers setting out to explore the lost island (ok just the Cowes bit of it).  

Coincidentally (no really) since part one, you may have heard in the news that the Red Funnel car ferry also lost the island in foggy conditions on an otherwise routine crossing, ran over and sank a moored yacht and then ran aground.  All was well though - no-one was hurt and the ferry was re-floated soon after and luckily had no significant damage, which is more than can be said for the yacht when the wreck was raised from the seabed.  

There is going to be an official inquiry - so it may well turn out that the captain hadn't lost the island at all, and just veered off course to avoid the 'Black Pearl' which suddenly loomed out of the mist (who knows...) 

Yachts flee Cowes harbour after rumours spread that a Red Funnel ferry will be arriving shortly....

Anyway enough of Red Funnel's adventures, let's get back to the story....

Expecting a long and tough inland route through streets full of hostile islanders the FOFs had had taken the precaution of fortifying themselves with fish and chips and Goddards Crew Brew (or Stella for the lager drinker - but we're not going to mention that) in the Fountain Inn.

Finally...we reached a place with signs of civilisation, The Vectis Tavern...

The Vectis Tavern

Actually the first part of our journey into the island wasn't quite as difficult as we expected...and when we looked back we could still see the Fountain Inn (next door)...

The Vectis Tavern is another ancient hostelry dating to 1757 originally The Robin Hood.  The pub's website explains that it used to flood regularly on the spring tides with the sea coming up through the floorboards.  This must have made for an interesting evening at the pub once a month and the flood level sign, at about head height on the wall by the bar, indicates that standing on your chair would have been essential to stop the contents of your pint glass becoming salty.

The pub is wet led (which apparently is nothing to do with it's historic flooding) and has a decent selection of real ale on the hand pumps...

Old favourite Courage Best Bitter was on offer together with island brewery Yates' offerings and West Country Dartmoor Brewery's Jail Ale.  Making up for what it lacks in taste these days, the Guinness chrome keg tap monument blinged and towered above the hand pumps.

While we deliberated over the real ale selection, the big screen was showing an interview with one of tens of thousands of people who had painted a nice picture to show how worried he was about Brexit (whatever that is), while the reporter enhanced his worries, by asking him lots of scary questions...

One of 'tens of thousands' proudly shows his anti-brexit picture....

In the end, it was a no-brainer as Yates had produced a beer which referred to the namesake of one of the FOFs.  A meeting with a nemesis perhaps...and so in celebration of the fact we all had a pint of that (except the lager drinking one who had Amstel).

The 'I Hate You Butler' beer was very good, and had been produced by Yates as one of their 'On the Buses' series to celebrate the annual CAMRA Beer & Buses event which had happened the previous weekend on the lost island.  The beer name is taken from the catchphrase of long suffering Inspector Blake, played by Stephen Lewis, often uttered when his nemesis, the cheeky bus driver Stan Butler (Reg Varney) usually got one over on him. 

This happy coincidence was marked by the pump clip being presented to our namesake - only temporarily mind you, before being returned to it's rightful place on the hand pump...

Namesake (but not a bus driver...)

We settled down for a quiet quaff after all this excitement, and admired the fine example of a pub mirror and bench seating...

Classic Bass mirror but Courage is the classic on the bar...

...and a troubling early suggestion of Christmas decorations on the window cill...

Subtle attempt to put the Christmas decorations up early...

I really should have had the courage to try the cask Courage Best - but perhaps there would be time for that later...

...continuing our journey of discovery on the lost island, we took the precaution of leaving the Vectis Tavern before the next spring tide arrived...

Five Find a Lost Island - Pt 1 Ferry to the Fountain

On an unusually warm October day, the sun baked down from a clear azure sky as their red boat raced through the waves...

"Look" said Dick excitedly, "There it is -we're here at last - we've found it!"
And he pointed to the cluster of masts of expensive sailing boats in the harbour, as the ferry approached the jetty.

"It didn't take us long to find it" said George* dubiously, underwhelmed at the lack of adventure on their 20 minute Red Jet ride from Southampton. "Is it really a lost island?"

"I think so", said Julian, as he climbed off the ferry, though if it was, he couldn't help wondering why so many other people seemed to have discovered it on the same day. "At least the famous adventurer Retired Martin says it is lost and he's usually right."

"There's the museum!" said Timmy*, running ahead to a large building at the entrance to the jetty, "It's called The Fountain Inn.  Is that because museums are the fountain of all knowledge?"

"That's 'font of all knowledge', stupid,  they're in churches," said Alan,* with some authority on the subject,"And anyway it's not a museum, it's a pub...and it must be time for a pint..."

(*With due respect to Enid Blyton's original creation this 'Famous' Five are all blokes - no girls, tomboys or dogs, and the names are construed accordingly.  The Five in this story of exciting pub adventures on a lost island, are usually known as the Five Old Farts, which shall henceforth be mentioned (where necessary) only as FOF, to avoid any rude words....)

It is true that the voyage on the Red Funnel Red Jet catamaran was short and very uneventful, as it whizzed us all the way down Southampton Water to the lost island of Wight, somewhere in the Solent.  No oars were required and it only took the same amount of time that it had taken the Hythe Ferry to potter across Southampton Water from Hythe to Southampton's Town Quay.

As we set sail, there were typically, the usual cruise liners disgorging satisfied cruise passengers, and restocking with prosecco and prawn cocktails for the next batch of passengers embarking later in the day....

...and a couple of car transporter's shipping in hundreds of far eastern micro-cars to squeeze into Britain's increasingly overburdened roads and car parks, and shipping out hundreds of luxury Landrovers to wealthy countries...  

It was also true, as Alan had promised, that the museum (the cultural visit to museums apparently being a cover story for the intended pub crawl) or The Fountain Inn, was but a stride or two from the gang plank as we got off the ferry in Cowes...

...and a very fine edifice it was too, worthy of any museum, never mind pub.  It was originally Cowes' premier coaching inn and it still has all the hallmarks of an old coaching inn with it's entrance arch, and rear stabling yard.  Instead of coaches and horses, the arch and yard are now traversed by the shorty buses that squeeze through from the narrow streets of Cowes delivering people to and from the ferries.

Inside the Fountain Inn there is an interesting contrast of an old world timbered pub bar...

...and traditional hotel style dining rooms, and this also doubles as a pub dining area....

Feeling peckish, after our epic voyage of discovery, the FOF grabbed a table in the nearly empty dining room.   But first we needed to quench our thirsts and wash the taste of sea salt from our throats...

I know what you're thinking....they all drink Greene King IPA on the lost island, as it's the only ale that can survive the long sea journey....
....well fortunately - no....

To get round that problem the island has several of its own breweries, and here Goddards Brewery had kindly created 'Crew Brew' specially for the Fountain Inn - so don't let the GK IPA glass fool you, it was in fact a tasty pint of Crew Brew (very good).

Though the dining room was quite empty, the pub was in fact very busy with plenty of people in the bar area and the quayside beer garden packed to capacity...

The lunchtime menu was also very popular with pub staff ferrying plate after plate of pie and chips, fish and chips etc, out to the beer garden.  What was really surprising, bearing in mind that Cowes is a top yachty venue, and Cowes Week is one of high society's annual social calendar events, was that the food was amazingly good value, with most mains on the menu being around the ￡5.99 mark.  

I wondered if the same fish and chips were probably at least ￡20 during Cowes week, if only to make sure the rich people think they're getting something that the hoi poloi can't afford.

As they were busy we had another pint while we waited for the food to arrive - it took 40 minutes or so,  not hotel haute-cuisine, but good honest pub fare, which was nice.  Not tempted by GK standard cask offerings I stuck to the Goddards Crew Brew - but somehow I felt the second pint was definitely not as good as the first (average/good) with a thin scummy head and slightly insipid taste - so perhaps the bottom of the cask was looming.

The Fountain Inn (Hotel) is owned by Old English Inns and it certainly fits the bill, with its heritage going back to 1793.  OEI say that has been refurbished in a traditional style and they've done a good job of that as it still maintains a lot of it's historic character and style.

The map of the lost island on the wall clearly indicated that the Fountain Inn was a key feature (if not the only feature) in these parts, but there was only one way to find out...

...so, past the grand frontage of the Fountain Inn...

...we headed into the lost island to see what we could discover....

(Don't miss next weeks exciting episode of 'Five Find a Lost Island'....)

Cometh the Hour (Glass)....

Google ‘The Hour Glass' and you will get Wiki’s explanation of an ancient time measuring device, cruelty-free cosmetics, an Asian luxury watch group, a historic pub in South Kensington, a 1967 American rhythm and blues band, etc etc...

...but add the magic word ‘micropub' and you get this...

As our CAMRA micro-bus transport made its way back home from the Drop the Anchor Brewery in Christchurch, Dorset, we came to New Milton, in Hampshire, saw the 'pit board’ (top photo) and made an essential pit stop for more beer...

The Hour Glass is another standard format retail unit micro, tables and seating up front and bar and other essentials at the rear...

The oil drum seats were a nice touch, possibly obtained from a dis-banded steel band (who knows)...

As is typical of micros, a relaxed atmosphere pervaded and as late afternoon crawled on, the place gradually filled up, including a group bringing in their boxed pizzas to eat with a beer and another lady tucking into her tupperware container meal - also with a pint...

...and the Indian is also very handy across the street if you fancy a curry with your pint, all of which was making me very hungry...

Concentrate GH....let’s have a look at the beer blackboard...

I followed the pointy finger and concluded the Swannay Brewery Orkney Best bitter sounded ok - at 3.6% abv a bit of alcohol moderation at the end of a hard day of beer tasting (Drink Aware and PHE would be proud)...

...a top quality beer too (very good) with good body and flavour for a session bitter.

As a whisky fan, I thought this radar graph* type thingy was very interesting too...though sadly ‘whiskey' wasn't spelled correctly**...

The hour in the Hour Glass was very pleasant, but the sands of time had run out for today’s CAMRA outing and we jumped back in the micro-bus and went home.

So there you have it another micro pub ticked off (only metaphorically speaking of course - no highlighter required...)

*Probably that's totally the wrong name...
** Of course Russ is Canadian, so he may try to tell me that it is spelled correctly...

Beer Mat Moment...
Dark revolution Brewery, Salisbury

Dark Revolution Brewery - (A side)

Dark Revolution Brewery - (B side)

Mini-Space Monster Mash...

You don't need to be a sci-fi buff to believe in monsters, and I'm sure you could name one or two that might be challenging the world right now...

...however having established (in my last post) that the good folk of Christchurch, and the Saxon Bar in particular, are on their guard against any such challenge,  I was able to rest easy as our CAMRA micro-bus tour moved on to the next stop,  the Drop The Anchor Brewery.

You may not have heard of this brewery as it is a relatively new start up, and before this visit I hadn't tried any of their beers either.  Despite them being a new micro-brewery, the purpose of the CAMRA visit was to present them with an award for one of their beers (their first award I think).

The brewery truly is micro, occupying the first floor gable end of an industrial unit used by Molly's Den the antiques, memorabilia and craft emporium.  The space appears to have been the original mezzanine office area for the industrial unit, and micro brewing kit and the brewery tap are squeezed into the limited space.

Due to the presentation, the place was heaving with CAMRA folk with rucksacks, notebooks and logo'ed shirts, much to the bemusement of the few ordinary folk that had popped in for a drink after perusing the emporium downstairs...

But it made for a fantastic atmosphere and must have made the brewery very happy as the beers flowed...

The Tap is also full of various memorabilia, which might well have come from shopping sprees downstairs in the emporium...including the music system...

....the old Benskins mirror...

...and a heavy rock beer glass...

On these occasions it is of course very important to test the beers, and having tried a few I generally concluded that they were top notch (very good).   Yes - ok - I can't remember them all...

I was particularly impressed with the experimental Elderflower Mild...showing the brewery's creative approach.  Rumour had it that a double figure ABV Christmas Ale was being planned by the brewery - so that should be a monster mash....

Unfortunately, somehow I missed the presentation, sitting downstairs in the beer garden behind the unit, and chatting to Andy while he ate his artisan meat pie.  It was all the more impressive that he managed to do so with a cardboard knife and fork (which is obviously better for the environment than plastic, but more of a challenge to eat with).

However we did hear the cheers and round of applause that heralded the presentation...

So yet another microbrewery finding it's way in the world of the monster breweries, and filling up the ever expanding brewery section of the Good Beer Guide (much to the concern of professional tickers who will need to buy bigger rucksacks)...

...but so far it seems to be going well for Drop The Anchor and they are already thinking of expansion...though from their very small beginnings that is understandable.

After a very pleasant afternoon in the brewery tap we climbed back in the micro-bus, with the promise of a stop off at another micro on the way home...

...don't miss next weeks exciting installment of CAMRAs in micro-space.....

PS - Russ - should there be an apostrophe in 'weeks'...?