Den Clare, Shanklin:

I have a little story to tell, which left Elaine and I disgusted with Red Funnel.

It begins with Elaine's booking to deliver a wedding in the beautiful manor house, Somerley Estate, in Ringwood.

The booking, made many weeks before travel, entailed an overnight stay prior to the wedding, for the rehearsal.

Our initial booking for 9.30am on August 2 was cancelled and rescheduled for 10.30am. Just as well we were travelling the day before the ceremony.

The overnight stay was fine, but then we received a message that our 6pm return would be delayed until 9pm.

Frustrating after a full day's work setting up and delivering the ceremony.

So I called Red Funnel and after a long, long wait, got through to an operator.

I asked her for an earlier ferry back, but to no avail, other than one mid-morning possibility, which, of course we couldn't accept, as there was a wedding to deliver.

I left my mobile number in case another opportunity occurred. The ceremony was conducted, and we set off for Southampton to decide where to spend the next five hours!

I thought, let's just try to see if we can get on an earlier ferry.

Empty spaces on the car ferry Empty spaces on the car ferry (Image: Den Clare)

It didn't seem too busy at the terminal when we arrived so asked if there was a chance of an earlier ferry than the booking we had for 6pm (subsequently changed to 9pm).

Glum looks, then, "Well if you pay £8.50 we could get you onto the next sailing, scheduled for 4pm."

An offer we, in the circumstances, leapt at!

Here is the rub! The ferry had many, many empty spaces, on all decks 'fore and aft, and on the bottom deck, the whole centre line was empty, plus even more spaces.

I took photos of the emptiness. See above.

This really was sickening. How many people paid £8.50 to get onto a partially empty boat, and how many sat for five hours elsewhere, waiting for the 9pm sailing?

The unreliability of Island ferries is of great concern to locals and the prices exclude many visitors from enjoying our lovely Island.

We really felt, "ripped off!" like so many others.