Wightlink, The Buddha and Mars

Living here on the island there is one thing that unites all residents and that is the exorbitantly high cost of the ferries and of the companies involved Wightlink comes in for particular criticism.

Next Sunday we are getting together again with the Newport Zen group to travel over to the mainland and visit Cittaviveka, the Buddhist Monastery at Chithurst near Petersfield. Two months ago we attemped to book our usual mini bus onto the 9:00 Sunday sailing from Wightlink's Fishbourne terminal over to Portsmouth only to be told that the boat was full! (We have been told by someone in the know that it's because the bus has to be on the lorry deck and it's too much trouble to fit it in, although this has never been a problem before).

As a result we are having to take three cars over, incurring three crossing charges instead of one!

When you couple this with the news that NASA has discovered water on Mars you can understand Rupert Besley's cartoon in this weeks Isle of Wight County Press!