Blue skies and even bluer water. Boats (the posh “sports cruiser” kind) dropping guests off on the jetty and then picking them up again a few hours later, a little louder, a little wobblier. Beachfront tables, staff in shorts and flip flops, and sunshine; glorious, you-can-actually-feel-it sunshine. You wouldn’t think you were in the UK… until you hear the ruckus of received pronunciation. But that is the main draw of The Hut on the Isle of Wight’s Colwell Bay, just a hop, skip and a short boat ride from the mainland.
I have arrived on one of the aforementioned posh sports cruisers, the Euphoria. Captained by Tony Pond and crewed by his wife Nadia, they bought the boat to escape the tedium of older age and now fund their lifestyles by chartering it from early spring through to late summer, mostly to The Hut customers. It’s the stuff of office-bound Londoners’ dreams. At around £3,000 for a Seaseeker Charter, it’s not exactly an affordable commute (their clients have included a celebrity or two), but there is a ferry and a RIB pickup for the riff raff. Oh and there’s also a helipad, but make sure you prebook because apparently there are actually people out there who take a helicopter to lunch.
