I parked at Egypt Point and sat in the car and watched some nice forked lightning over the Solent, sadly failing to capture any on camera, and the torrential rain while listening to the thunder, fervently hoping that this crap would clear away before the ship appeared and spending the time waiting by posting on Facebook, slagging off the Met Office on Twitter - thunder, lightning and torrential rain is NOT, repeat NOT, 'sunny spells'! - and checking Marine Traffic. Unfortunately the weather didn't clear so I took most of the photos from the car, although I did have to step out once or twice, ending up with wet feet and my car with as much water inside as out.
My friend Andrew Cooke was also at Cowes and, like me, he took photos from inside his car. We re-parked our cars at least once to get into photography positions to limit the times we needed to get out!
Here are the photos, and I have managed to make the sow's ears into not exactly silk purses but something approaching acceptable.
It was at this point that I'd had enough and came home. The small cruise ship Deutschland is in Cowes later but, although the sun is now out (typical!), I am not planning to go back today. Tomorrow it's the TSS Solent trip and I hope the weather is better than the soggy mess it was this morning!
