Dear Vectis Lady -
Hate to say it, but living on the IOW would certainly cramp my style! which is flying gliders.....as another poster has mentioned, this sport is endlessly challenging. Because if you get it wrong you visit a farmer! and then your friends come to get you, and you all stop at a pub on the way home! or go rock polishing in Wales, or fly in competitions, or in the Alps, or in the Cairngorns in wave, but mainly....
Because in gliding we have to help each other out, and so the club is our family. In power, you book the plane, you taxi out, you fly someplace dull, at great expense, and any group activity is contrived. And it costs a lot! and it isn't safe except in good weather, unless you have all the kit and 2 engines and an IR and plenty of practice.
If I lived on the IOW I would seriously take up sailing.