I haven't had the urge to blog about creative stuff here, and am comfortable about that, but we have just had a fantastic (for us) sailing trip to the Isles of Scilly, and I wanted to share it here, mainly for Rob and Cally who we bought the boat from, as I'm sure they will love to see that we are finally doing some fun stuff with her.
It has been on of Vince's dreams to sail to the Scilly Isles, and particularly to be there on his 60th birthday, as he had a birthday party there on his 50th. We missed it by one day, but we decided it was officially his birthday 'week' and so he spent that on the islands.
I made him a cake with a map of the Scillys on it as an aid to navigation. I even put the little boat in the right place, which was complete luck as I had no idea where we would be approaching from!
We were very fortunate that a couple of friends of ours, Paul and Sam, were happy to come along for the ride and help crewing. Paul just happens to be a sailing instructor and has done many yacht deliveries, we couldn't have done it without him!
We had Vince's birthday meal on the boat on Tuesday evening and set off early on Wednesday morning. There wasn't a lot of wind, so we motored with a bit of sailing down to St Mawes, where we picked up a bouy and were treated to a lovely sunset and a visit from a huge jellyfish in the morning.
Setting off again in the early morning and with force3/4 predicted we saw very little wind all the way, but just had enough of a breeze to help us along from time to time. Motoring in a sailing boat is a bit tiresome and slow, but the sun shone and the water was mostly like a millpond so there was no seasickness and several sightings of porpoises, sunfish fins (a new one for me) dolphins and diving gannets. We arrived at the Scillys in the last of the daylight, and were treated to another glorious sun set.
We then had three days of glorious sunshine and the four of us split up to visit various islands and friends during the days.
We set off to catch the tides at silly o'clock on Monday morning (1 a.m.) and had a fabulous (if slightly rough for some of us) sail back all the way to Plymouth.
Leaving the Scillys and arriving at Plymouth in the dark was very challenging as Vince and I have done very little night sailing, and it was slightly frightening how different the familiar surroundings of Plymouth sound look at night. We were very glad to have Pauls experience to guide us.
I really felt safe on our lovely boat in the crashing waves, and also very at home down below in the wood lined cosy interior. After several summers of mostly being cold and wet and not really knowing what I'm doing I finally feel I can imagine a life as a boat gipsy one day.
It has been on of Vince's dreams to sail to the Scilly Isles, and particularly to be there on his 60th birthday, as he had a birthday party there on his 50th. We missed it by one day, but we decided it was officially his birthday 'week' and so he spent that on the islands.
I made him a cake with a map of the Scillys on it as an aid to navigation. I even put the little boat in the right place, which was complete luck as I had no idea where we would be approaching from!
We were very fortunate that a couple of friends of ours, Paul and Sam, were happy to come along for the ride and help crewing. Paul just happens to be a sailing instructor and has done many yacht deliveries, we couldn't have done it without him!
We had Vince's birthday meal on the boat on Tuesday evening and set off early on Wednesday morning. There wasn't a lot of wind, so we motored with a bit of sailing down to St Mawes, where we picked up a bouy and were treated to a lovely sunset and a visit from a huge jellyfish in the morning.
Setting off again in the early morning and with force3/4 predicted we saw very little wind all the way, but just had enough of a breeze to help us along from time to time. Motoring in a sailing boat is a bit tiresome and slow, but the sun shone and the water was mostly like a millpond so there was no seasickness and several sightings of porpoises, sunfish fins (a new one for me) dolphins and diving gannets. We arrived at the Scillys in the last of the daylight, and were treated to another glorious sun set.
We then had three days of glorious sunshine and the four of us split up to visit various islands and friends during the days.
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| Hope in St Marys harbour |
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| Agapanthus in full bloom everywhere |
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| Morning mist on St Martins |
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| Such lovely clear water, I did go in twice tho it was fairly cold! |
We set off to catch the tides at silly o'clock on Monday morning (1 a.m.) and had a fabulous (if slightly rough for some of us) sail back all the way to Plymouth.
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| This was when it had calmed down |
Leaving the Scillys and arriving at Plymouth in the dark was very challenging as Vince and I have done very little night sailing, and it was slightly frightening how different the familiar surroundings of Plymouth sound look at night. We were very glad to have Pauls experience to guide us.
I really felt safe on our lovely boat in the crashing waves, and also very at home down below in the wood lined cosy interior. After several summers of mostly being cold and wet and not really knowing what I'm doing I finally feel I can imagine a life as a boat gipsy one day.
