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'....)