Arriving in the Scillies was like arriving in paradise - I know it's a massive cliche but this is how it felt as we coasted in on the early morning high tide with the sun shining, the sand beaming white and the water glistening turquoise with belts of emerald. I've never been to the Caribbean but this is how I imagine it (though clearly a bit warmer).
Despite the reputation the Scillies have for difficult anchoring, we immediately found a place to anchor and were feeling rather pleased with ourselves only to realise, whilst eating breakfast, that we were nearly aground. We walked around the boat pretending we meant it and when we thought no one was watching we gingerly motored off to a better place blaming the error on the failure of the depth sounder to work amidst all the weed rather than our inability to work out tidal falls. On reading the pilot we noted that the fall is indeed huge in the Scillies and that the Spring tides we were at meant a 6 metre fall. We had a great time in the Scillies despite the almighty winds, as the following diary entries testify:
Wednesday 15th July
It blew hard to 37 knots last night and we were beam on to a grating little swell. The French boat next to us dragged anchor out to the rocks in the middle of the sound (thankfully not towards us) so, in between downpours, we threw in a second anchor (7kg Bruce). Slept not brilliantly but woke up to flat water and a warm sunny day. Plenty of boats leaving to make the most of the still stiff but not bone whipping breeze. This gives me the ‘we should be off’ itch but there is no point arriving in Penzance early as it’s expensive in the harbour there.
Thursday 16th July
Yesterday we landed Impulse on Old Grimsby beach – third time lucky! The barometer flew up overnight and gave us a tranquil blue sky and calm water by morning. However, despite the perfect conditions and countless landing reckies over the last week, we still managed to beach Impulse on a less than perfect spot which not only saw us listing ungainly but, more importantly, that never quite dried thereby defeating the object of the beaching exercise entirely! This led initially to much cursing and was followed by much more cursing as work on the wind vane commenced and a socket end fell into the slushy sand only to be immediately sucked dreckly into the bowels of the beach. The evening was beautifully warm and quiet and tinged with pink the colour of summer sweet pea. I swam and Casper tended cooked sausages on the barbeque and we felt like this summer would last forever.
Now, however, it’s raining and not just a shower but the kind of fat rain that you can catch and collect to make water, so we are.
Wednesday 15th July
It blew hard to 37 knots last night and we were beam on to a grating little swell. The French boat next to us dragged anchor out to the rocks in the middle of the sound (thankfully not towards us) so, in between downpours, we threw in a second anchor (7kg Bruce). Slept not brilliantly but woke up to flat water and a warm sunny day. Plenty of boats leaving to make the most of the still stiff but not bone whipping breeze. This gives me the ‘we should be off’ itch but there is no point arriving in Penzance early as it’s expensive in the harbour there.
Impulse on Old Grimsby Beach, Tresco
Yesterday we landed Impulse on Old Grimsby beach – third time lucky! The barometer flew up overnight and gave us a tranquil blue sky and calm water by morning. However, despite the perfect conditions and countless landing reckies over the last week, we still managed to beach Impulse on a less than perfect spot which not only saw us listing ungainly but, more importantly, that never quite dried thereby defeating the object of the beaching exercise entirely! This led initially to much cursing and was followed by much more cursing as work on the wind vane commenced and a socket end fell into the slushy sand only to be immediately sucked dreckly into the bowels of the beach. The evening was beautifully warm and quiet and tinged with pink the colour of summer sweet pea. I swam and Casper tended cooked sausages on the barbeque and we felt like this summer would last forever.
Now, however, it’s raining and not just a shower but the kind of fat rain that you can catch and collect to make water, so we are.
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