Quote from Jaydig
" b) I arrive at the bus stop almost five minutes early, only to see the very bus that I want sailing off into the sunset ".
Slightly pondered on this one , I notice from you post that you are from the Worcester area and assumed , by stretching the geography slightly, that the buss that you had just missed could , in fact , be on the river Severn , hence the the sailing , ( it momentarily crossed my mind that this may have related to the Isle of Wight Ferry , that would be silly , and therefore ridiculing the sensible nature of this thread )
This could also further confirmed by the mention of " sailing off into the sunset" as the general direction of the Mouth of the River Severn would be in the West , and therefor the Sun set.
There are two possible flaws in this theory , one , it could be a low tide ,and sailing not possible , and two the buss that you had missed was a morning service