St. Mary's Pool

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Traveler A cosy boat
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- Jun 16, 2017
- 🌙 16 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.919574, -6.31310349°55’10” N 6°18’47” W
Day 20
The Isles of Scilly
June 16, 2017 in England ⋅ 🌙 16 °C
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
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Traveler A cosy boat
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- Jun 17, 2017
- 🌙 16 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.919574, -6.31310349°55’10” N 6°18’47” W
Day 21
Busman's Holiday
June 17, 2017 in England ⋅ 🌙 16 °C
After a good night's sleep we headed ashore to catch a ferry to visit the island of Tresco.
This was going to my first time on a ferry here as up to now I had always found my own way around. I was looking forward to having a day off.

As the ferry approached New Grimsby Sound between the islands of Bryher and Tresco, it had to slow as there were swimmers in the water ahead of us. They were taking part in a 37 km race around the islands and the only way to do that was to swim from island to island and run while on dry land.

In the 1834 the islands were leased to Augustus Smith who did much to improve the lives of the islanders and in Tresco, built his house 'Tresco Abbey' and like Garnish Island in Glengarriff, created gardens where he could grow plants and trees from around the world that thrived in the mild climate of the islands. The family still live in the Abbey.
We walked to the famous gardens and after our walk around we had lunch in the café. Luckily there was a good amount of shade in the gardens as it was after getting very hot.
There is a nice museum that had to be visited of figureheads and other bits and pieces from the various wreaks that litter the seas around the islands.

We later had to walk to the south of the island to catch the ferry back to St. Marys as it was now low tide and too shallow to by picked up in New Grimsby.

Dinner took place in 'The Mermaid' washed down with the odd pint . . . . . . . . .for medicinal purposes of course.Read more
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Traveler Cornwall 2021
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- Sep 1, 2021, 3:57pm
- ⛅ 18 °C
- Altitude: 7 m
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.91579, -6.3123249°54’57” N 6°18’44” W
Day 7
Scilly
September 1, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Up very early and off to the scilly Isles. While matt and chloe slept me and Olivia saw dolphins we arrived at 12 and wondered the cobbled streets before heading to porthcressa beach which had beautiful little shells. Just the most beautiful place and didn't want to leave, visited a wedding venue which gave us a lot to think about. A real adventure todayRead more
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Traveler Scilly Revisited
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- Jun 7, 2019, 7:10pm
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 8 m
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.916451, -6.30876749°54’59” N 6°18’32” W
Day 8
Juliet's and the Beach
June 7, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
Rain forecast. Preparations for othillo swimrun well underway and a few hardy soles out practicing. First stop to pick up St Agnes gin from Tanglewood behind the post Office. Then off to Porth Melon craft workshops followed by the gallery where we met Stephen Morris, the artist who had been painting a watercolour in the Main Street all week which he showed us. His uncle was married to Nan Heath who also painted watercolours many with wild flowers in the foreground. We then forged on through the rain of storm Miguel past Porth Loo and on to Juliet’s which now has a lovely new building as well as terraces with views for when the sun shines.
We enjoyed a cream tea and watched the Scillonian sail in.
Braving the passing storm we nipped along to the gate where we have a group family photo from some 25 years ago. Then back past the duck pond and Harry’s Walls for lunch at The Beach-excellent it was too!
We all felt the need for a restful afternoon at base while the storm moderated.
Late afternoon we met some new friends of J&N, who shared the same coat as Nat and an 11 week old. We had drinks, including Ales of Scilly special brew for them. Then we stayed on for tapas in Dibble and Grub on Porthcressa, sadly not conducive to sitting outside.Read more
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Traveler Summer 2021-Covid Free
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- Jun 6, 2021, 9:00am
- ☁️ 13 °C
- Altitude: 4 m
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.91523, -6.3158949°54’55” N 6°18’57” W
1
Day 45
Birthday morning
June 6, 2021 in England ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
A lovely sunny morning to wake up to on my birthday and go for a stroll around Hugh Town to buy us some goodies. Sunday in Scillies is an old fashioned Sunday - no shops open, so will have to wait till tomorrow to spend my birthday money.Read more
Traveler Beautiful place xx
6/7/21Reply
Traveler Happy birthday Sally...hope you have fun spending your dosh today xx
6/7/21Reply
Traveler Thx Lisa....shops closed so gonna try again today x
6/7/21Reply
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Traveler A cosy boat
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- Jun 18, 2017
- 🌙 17 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.919574, -6.31310349°55’10” N 6°18’47” W
Day 22
Exploring St. Mary's
June 18, 2017 in England ⋅ 🌙 17 °C
Chris likes to walk so it meant that the rest of us were going walking too.
Once ashore Chris headed to the tourist office, got a map and off we went.

The islands have very little motorised traffic and there are plenty of paths off the beaten track, well away civilisation.
We headed off towards the lighthouse on Peninnis Head on the south of the island before heading east to Old Town which use to be the harbour on St. Mary's before the pier was built in Hugh Town.

There is a lovely small church there and in the nearby churchyard is the grave of Harold Wilson, one time prime minister of the UK who was a resident on the island after he retired.

Maeve, Chris and Eddie had a swim in the bay while I watched from the safety of the shore before we had lunch in a local café.

We walked back along a nature trail across the moor that brought us to the beach at Porthloo and then we walked back along the shore to the pier.
We decided to have dinner ashore before we returned to Eureka but first I had to go back to Eureka as I had forgotten to bring clothes to wear after our showers. Wouldn't want to shock the locals.

Fed and watered we headed back to Eureka for an early night as Chris & Eddie were getting the morning ferry back to the mainland.Read more
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Traveler A cosy boat
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- Jun 21, 2017
- 🌫 16 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.919149, -6.31272149°55’9” N 6°18’46” W
Day 25
Where's the dinghy??
June 21, 2017 in England ⋅ 🌫 16 °C
With the change of tide the anchorage was calm again by dawn.
When we got up we were greeted by a grey overcast day. What happened to the Caribbean?
After breakfast we began getting Eureka ready as we had decided to move from the idyllic isolation to somewhere a little more lively.

One of the first jobs is to remove the outboard from the dinghy.....................but guess what??
No outboard....................no dinghy!!

Out came the binoculars but no sign.
That put a damper on the morning and how were we going to get ashore in St. Mary's or anywhere else when it came to it.
Unfortunally before we had the anchor up to go looking for it, a light fog came down which made searching almost impossible so after reporting the stray dinghy via VHF to the coastguard, we motored north around to New Grimsby hoping that the fog would lift and we could carry out a search later.

Again we found all the visitor moorings occupied and so we tried to anchor but had problems and so decided to head for St. Mary's instead as there was a better chance of getting a lift ashore there.

It was not a happy boat as we motored north back out of New Grimsby Sound and then south, down the west side of Bryher.
On the way Maeve thought she had heard a message on the VHF about a dinghy.
I went below and sat by the radio at the chart table and soon heard a conversation between a fishing boat and the coastguard.
Our dinghy had been found caught in some lobster buoys on the south side of Tresco.
I joined in the conversation and found out that the work boat would be heading to St. Mary's later that afternoon so we arranged to have it returned to us at the mooring.

We tied up in St. Marys harbour at 15.00 and the mood was much better helped by the sun that had come out, burnt off the fog and we were now back in t-shirts.

About 2 hours later we were reunited with our dinghy and gave an award to the crew for their trouble.

We later went ashore and called to the 'Bishop & Wolf' for dinner. We were told they had stopped serving at 20.30, it was now 20.34.
Jesus! what was a couple of minutes?
When Maeve asked him if there was any other place serving, he informed us 'The Co Op' (the local supermarket) as all the restaurants stopped at 20.30. The lad definitely lacked training in customer service.
Just as well I hadn't heard the encounter as i might have said something rude!
We tried 'The Atlantic Inn' and discovered that they serve until 21.00 and had no problem fitting us in.

The lovely meal made the perfect ending to what started off as a bad day and we later returned to Eureka and this time made sure the dinghy was not going anywhere.Read more
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Traveler Summer 2021-Covid Free
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- Jun 5, 2021, 2:30pm
- 🌧 14 °C
- Altitude: 12 m
- England St. Mary's Hugh Town St. Mary's Pool 49.91529, -6.3116449°54’55” N 6°18’42” W
Day 44
St Marys
June 5, 2021 in England ⋅ 🌧 14 °C
Late afternoon we catch a local ferry to St Mary's as have hotel booked for 2 nights.
Arrive in the rain so off for a B&C in the bath before dinner on land.
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