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VOC Annual
Rally 2011
Gloria and I attended the VOC Annual Rally
on the Rapide. We rode South on the
Rapide at midday on Friday arriving at the Fordingbridge campsite mid-afternoon.
We registered and said a few “hello’s” before we rode a further 20
miles to where we had the use of a static caravan near New Milton.
There was a ride-out from Fordingbridge on Saturday morning to visit to
the Sammy Miller museum but as we were only staying 1 mile from the museum we
joined the group there. The museum
had some interesting machines and when we had finished viewing we sat outside at
the café in the courtyard and enjoyed a cup of tea and some interesting
discussions with fellow VOC visitors. We returned to Fordingbridge later in the
afternoon where we were treated to an excellent array of cakes and found some
other Coventry Section members Paul Ennis, Loz Powers, Chris Worland and Dave
Davies. The following day we joined
a group of local VMCC members for an 80 mile run through the delightful
New Forest
area to a military air museum. On
Monday we rode into Lymington to check the ferry prices (£31.50 for bike, rider
and passenger, return) and sailing times to
Yarmouth
in the
Isle of Wight
. They can usually squeeze a motor
cycle in so we didn’t bother to book and turned up and got the 9.25 am boat on
Tuesday morning. A smooth crossing
had us riding off the boat just 35 minutes later.
We rode around to
Cowes
and as it was Cowes Week we expected to see lots of boats.
It was busy in the town and we struggled to get near any boats so we rode
clockwise around the coast to Ryde where we picnicked near the Esplanade with a
fine view of lots of sailing vessels a little way off shore.
The highlight of Ryde was watching the hovercraft sliding smoothly across
from
Portsmouth
on a salt spray and air carpet before gliding up onto the beach.
There it cut the engines and gently settled down onto the sand as the air
left the rubber skirt. I thought
that the hovercrafts were no longer in service but here they run a regular foot
passenger shuttle, Ryde-Portsmouth taking only 10 minutes.
Continuing round the island we visited Ventnor, a pleasant seaside
village, before riding along the Military road with fine coastal views to
Freshwater. We walked up to “The
Battery”, a National Trust owned old gun emplacement where we got a good view
of “The Needles” and then back to
Yarmouth
and the ferry. We stayed until
Thursday to do a bit more riding and sight seeing.
The Rapide ran well and used little oil.
The recently fitted valve guide oil seals I think have helped here.
The Garmin GPS trip showed 600 miles for the round trip and the petrol
consumption averaged out at 58 mpg. Petrol
has become very expensive but if you are enjoying every mile how do you put a
value on enjoying yourself? Eddy.
We stayed in this. Luxury compared to a tent.
Bikes arriving at the Sammy Miller museum.
Hovercraft 1
Hovercraft 2
Hovercraft 3
Hovercraft 4
The Needles.
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