The Isles of Scilly

Never call them the Scillies or the Scilly Isles, the locals won't like it!

Right, we had done the Helford River both north and south and even ventured upriver to Frenchman's Creek in the dinghy. It was time to move on.

The Isles of Scilly were a day's sail to the west and have a reputation that scares many sailors from visiting due to its many rocks and difficult navigation. Well they don't know that they're missing!

I had first visited the islands in 1993 and have been there a number of times since but it was ten years since my last visit.

If you can navigate around the coasts of Cork and Kerry you can navigate in the IOS, you just have to watch the depths a bit more carefully.
However it's a horrible place in bad weather but in good weather, it's the Caribbean on your doorstep.

We planned an early start to get there sometime in the afternoon and have enough time to have a look around Hugh Town on the main island of St. Marys before dinner and a good night's sleep.

All the alarms went off excepts the skippers.
Despite the crew being told that I only needed one of them up to be able to leave, they were all on deck at 05.00.
Eddie cast off the mooring we left Helford as the sun began to rise

Unfortunally the seas were a bit lumpy and the wind was on the nose once we rounded The Lizard and turned west.
It was only when we were near the islands that the seas calmed and at 15.00 we were able at last to hoist the sails and sail the last hour and a half into St. Marys harbour.
It's lovely to see the look the excitment on peoples faces then they arrive somewhere they havn't been before and the longing to get ashore.

We picked up a visitor mooring. The harbour master was sick and tired of pulling yachts off the beach in bad weather so now the only option is, "do you want a small or large mooring?" which depends on the size of your boat.

We went ashore in the dinghy calling at the showers on the pier before finding Chris & Eddie, the first two ashore, sampling the beer in 'The Mermaid'.
We later found our way to 'The Atlantic' where we had dinner on the balcony overlooking the harbour and the other islands as the sun slowly began to head for the horizon .

Four sleepy contented persons headed back to Eureka that night.Read more