After arrival in Scilly on Saturday evening we had sunshine but we knew the forecast for Sunday was poor so we put up Elektra’s cockpit enclosure. The forecast l had seen was for force 4 gusting 6 with rain but l gathered later that the met Office increased the the wind forecast last minute.
We had anchored close into the shore in East Porth south of Tean island. The wind and rain came in after darkness decended. Then followed a spell of wet and windy weather for the next 24hrs, the wind died away Sunday evening but the rain continued until midday Monday.
I hadn’t ventured out except to lower the dinghy off it’s davits on Sunday morning for which l only put on a coat over pants and T-shirt as the dinghy was now a paddling pool.
On Monday afternoon we were both getting a real need to get our feet back on dry land for a walk. Having put on warm clothes and wellies we both got down into the dinghy/paddling pool, l used Elektra’s gunnal and then her anchor chain to pull us ashore. Once ashore l could tip the rain water out of the dinghy. Vicki isn’t able to walk far so l left her sitting on the beach while l climbed to the top of the Tean island, 30 meters!
I like to survey the islands and take photos, looking for good anchorages for the future. In fact Tean island was our first time, we like and well come back. From the top of the hill l had a good view.
On Monday evening after the tide had floated Elektra again we motored her out of East Porth northwest though St Helen’s Pool out around the north of Tresco into New Grimsby Sound. The sea north of Tresco was still quite big and confused but once we made the turn into New Grimsby the sea soon settled down. We passed the moored and anchored yachts in the Sound and turned into Green Bay off Bryher. Still on a rising tide we gingerly moved in watching the depth sounder. 2.6m quickly changed to 1.6m at which point l did a U turn and went forward to drop anchor. As per normal Vicki had problem in reverse, l suggested just let her lie back in the wind, when Elektra straightens up, l will dig the anchor in.
We stayed in Green Bay a Monday and Tuesday nights, doing some shopping and getting our first pub lunch since January 2020 on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning we moved to the Neck of the Pool, St Martin’s, Wednesday turned out to be a lovely summer day, l walked around St Martin’s which we last visited in 2010 seeing some of the north facing coast this time.
The forecast was settled until Friday evening, from there it was going to deteriorate with gales coming in on Monday. We decided we would head back home on Friday. But being Thursday we were going to stay as long as we could and plan to move to Watermill Cove on St Mary’s in the evening for an early start Friday.
Wednesday evening Justin Harley arrived from the mainland in his Sadler 29 “Daedalus” for his first visit to Scilly, we invited him aboard for cold bites and beer. There followed a lovely evening of chatting about boats, sailing and places we had visited. Justin making his exit just before dark.
Thursday was a lazy start after sleeping like a log l turned out about 0730hrs making coffee for both of us as normal, the morning seemed to slip by and it was time for a walk to the Seven Stones lnn for a pint and lunch which all went down very nicely.
A lazy walk back to the punt, we sat there for a while enjoying the view. Then l pulled the punt back to the water and we motored out to Elektra. She still had over 1m under the keel so we then decided to move Elektra to Watermill Cove before the tide went out. We decided not to remove her cockpit enclosure and gently motored her west then south to the cove.
In real holiday mode we then lay, read and slept in the lovely sunshine.
On Friday we motorsailed back to the mainland, the calm before the storm. A short but lovely holiday.
Love Sailing 