Scilly Times

Our passage west from Dartmouth was exactly what we needed to re-establish our confidence and commitment to our adventure and decisions.   Our original intention was to sail to Plymouth but with perfect weather conditions and the wind direction in our favour, we made excellent time and decided to keep heading west to the small harbour settlement of Fowey (pronounced Foy).   It was a perfect sail with sunshine, blue sky and dolphins that farewelled us from Dartmouth and welcomed us to Fowey.   We completed the 50NM trip in 9.5 hours, hand steering all the way as the autohelm was still not playing nice with us!  

Fowey is another beautiful town with a rich maritime history.   From as early as the 5^th century Fowey supplied monarchs with ships and soldiers.  In the 14^th century the town sent 29 ships and three-quarters of its population to fight for the monarch against France.  However, they refused to give up their pirate ways after peace was declared and started putting the newly agreed truce at risk.  A messenger was sent from London to the town from the king, stating “I am at peace with my brothers in France”.  This was not received well in Fowey, and the locals defiantly cut off the messengers ears and nose before returning him to a very unhappy King Edward IV!  More recently Fowey was immortalised as a backdrop to the book, Wind in the Willows and Daphne Du Maurier lived here for many years.

The attractive harbour has Fowey on one side and the town of Polruan on the other.   Both settlements have old houses built on a hillside, down to a small port on either side of the river.  To me, it is a typical Cornish setting with a backdrop of mature trees and patchwork fields.   I loved it!

The harbour master directed us to a mooring buoy close to the busy main channel where boats packed with masked tourists came within arms length of us at regular intervals until the sun went down.   While enjoying a sundowner on deck a couple passed close to us in their tender, slowed down, spent some time eyeing up Cerulean and yelled out to me, “She is BEAUTIFUL!”  I felt like someone had just complimented me on my offspring, and my chest puffed out in pride!

Next morning we had a slow start and left on high tide in calm SE winds.   Once again we had a great sail with dolphins joining us as we continued our journey west, this time just a short sail of 20NM to Falmouth.   We felt a huge sense of achievement sailing into Falmouth, which had been our ultimate destination when we left Gosport 12 days earlier, having survived a near sinking, learnt a lot about our boat, explored new harbours and growing in confidence as we settled into our new life on the water.    We were both surprised at how easily we have adapted and how comfortable Cerulean is to live on.

Andy came to collect us from the Royal Yacht Club who had given us permission to store our dinghy for a few days.  We were whisked off to my sisters beautiful home in Falmouth where we spent a relaxing and wonderful time enjoying Bea and Andy’s company, fresh garden produce, amazing views and access to laundry facilities!!!  

While in Falmouth we replaced all the reefing lines which were old and several of them had become untied and were lost in the boom.  For those non-sailors reading this must sound like another language, but in short, when the wind is strong, you don’t want to have a full sail up, so reefing allows you to make your sail smaller.  Our system is called “Single line reefing” which means we can make the main sail smaller without leaving the safety of the cockpit.   We had been using just one of the reefing points and decided to replace the system for one that had less friction, giving us easier control when we needed it.    

The riggers had just left when a large black inflatable came alongside with three very serious looking uniformed personnel who identified themselves as border patrol and asked if they could come on board.   They were interested to know why we had a New Zealand registered boat when it was obvious from her name – Cerulean of Penryn – she was from the UK.   After showing all the boat papers, passports, sailing certificates and confirming our plans, they were quite happy to sit and talk to us for a while before leaving us with a request to be their eyes and ears and to report if we see anything suspicious…….

After a wonderful week with Bea and Andy, a good weather window opened up and we decided to make the most of an easterly wind and head for The Isles of Scilly – a 60NM sail South West to the low lying group of islands, approx 30NM off Lands End. 

We spent the night before departure in Helford River where Bea and Andy joined us for dinner in the local pub.  At 5.30 the next morning we headed out of a glassy Helford River watching a large pod of small dolphins feeding in the bay as Gannets dived around them.   As we rounded The Manacles, we set the sails and made the most of the easterly winds, making between 6-8knots as we sped towards The Lizard – the most Westerly point of the UK mainland with notorious currents.   

More dolphins – this time much larger – joined us as we continued West to The Scillies.  We passed Sunfish lazing on top of the water as we savoured the downwind sailing, crossing the shipping channel before catching the first sight of the islands.

There is something magical about arriving at a new destination by sea and watching as the faint outline of the distant land draws slowly into focus until rock formations, trees and buildings can be clearly defined.   We timed our arrival perfectly to make use of favourable currents as we entered the narrow channel that runs between two of the islands – St Marys and Gugh (rhymes with Hugh).  

It is thought The Isles of Scilly were named in Roman times after the sun god, Sulis and the islands are scattered with ancient monuments and relics from many centuries.  With a population of just over 2,000 living on five of the 140 islands, it really is a special place and we felt very privileged to have been able to get here.    The beaches are littered with large, colourful rocks of granite, scattered over white sand and falling into the clear, cold water.    The hillsides are covered in purple heather and bracken with large blocks of rock piled on top of each other, resembling a lost game of Jenga!  

Over the next few days we explored different islands – St Agnes, Gugh, Tresco and Bryher.  Each place had its own unique beauty and landscape from patchwork fields with shelterbelts made up of NZ natives; friendly, inquisitive birds who were happy to share a seat without demanding food; seals lazily lounging on seaweed while sunning themselves in the afternoon heat; amazing sunsets in front of a solitary castle on the headland and views that reminded me of The Bay of Islands with numerous small uninhabited outlying islands stretching out infront of us.    We loved our time visiting these special islands.

After five days on the islands, it was time to leave while the winds were favourable and before some nasty weather was due to hit.   We left with 20knots of wind blowing us back to the mainland and as we picked up speed, two dolphins leapt out the water beside us.   If we can, we will return and explore some of the many other islands we didn’t have a chance to visit but for now we’re just happy we came and didn’t add to the over 500 recorded shipwrecks around these treacherous waters!