Western Solent

Walking westwards from Lymington, through the saltings past Oxey Lake there are fantastic views of the western Solent. There are extensive shoals to both the east and west of the river entrance, but for incoming boats the entrance channel is well marked to starboard by the starting platform seen here and a "Jack in the Basket" to port.

In the distance the Isle of Wight slopes westward towards Yarmouth, where a regular ferry service runs across the Solent to Lymington.

For some reason the outgoing and incoming ferries time their passage so that they always cross at the same point, a bend in the Lymington river.

There is actually plenty of space, even though from the deck of a small yacht in the river it may not seem so, from a distance it looks very tight!