Today I needed to be near the sea even more.

With Martin and the kids having a free day we all got into the Alfa and headed to the coast to watch the yachts racing in Cowes Week and explore the foreshore.

It was hot but breezy as we wandered along looking for stones to skim and shells to collect. I’m always amazed at the feeling of being at sea as you walk out on the narrow gravel spit half way around the bay. The water surrounds you and the Isle of Wight is so close you feel more in the middle of the sea than on a thin finger of the land.

There were loads of people taking pictures of the ships so for once, despite having the large paparazzi style lens on, no one asked me if I was from the press or what I was taking pictures of.

We happily walked along to explore the slowly decaying remains of where the Mulberry Harbours were manufactured before being towed across the Channel on D Day, trying to guess what the remains of concrete and brick may have been and how it appeared all those years ago.

Standing watching the ferries entering and leaving Cowes harbour my mind drifted back to when I was Richard’s age and summer holidays always meant a trip to the sea and I felt all the stress of work slowly ebb away. Why does the sea always do to this to me ? Is it as simple as a day skipping stones over the waves ?

There was no doubt that after a long walk and sea air we were all hungry and ice cream wasn’t the thing to have, despite the call of the van near the swings. I didn’t want to leave sea or the sun so we decided to head around the coast to Oyster Bay to eat.

Luckily there was a place on the terrace so we could sit, eat, watch the boats and listen to the wind whistling through the rigging then stand at the harbour side and dream of life with a boat…