Isles of Scilly (part 1)

Well, we're in the Isles of Scilly. An interesting sail here when Simon spotted a weather window to get here before a strong gale arrived and we managed to get in, with a few hours to spare but below a steadily more glowering sky. The weather has been so bad that the islands are very quiet, lots of spare moorings and space everywhere, which is nice for us, albeit the first day here it was so windy that we didn't fancy a dinghy ride and stayed nice and snug on the boat all day out in the harbour!

The weather continues to be very windy but it is so lovely here that waiting for a window to head for Ireland is no hardship. We're probably about a week behind schedule but Simon has a plan to reel off two long sails (here to the Dublin area and thence to Campbeltown for about 10th August) to recover some ground. We hope then to head up the west coast of Scotland and through the Caledonian canal but it really depends on the weather in the next two weeks. Unfortunately the weather forecast for this week seems to be very windy until Friday and to get to Arklow (170 miles) or Dublin (about 210) we need a reasonably settled spell (albeit Milford Haven remains an option en route).

We spent about a week based in St Mary's (the principal island) doing boat trips out to some of the smaller ones, and hiring bikes to explore St Mary's itself. Simon was last here properly in 1982, and then (briefly) on a later sailing trip in the early 90's, Katy had a week here about 15 years ago so whilst the islands familiar in places we have all enjoyed exploring the islands (and in Flora's case their multitude of gift shops). Faqvourite so far is probably St Agnes, which has a great pub, and some lovely unspoilt scenery and beaches.

We have now moved to New Grimsby harbour (between Tresco and Bryher) to explore the northern islands. Tresco seems very very commercialised, with lots of timeshare apartments and a spectaculalry expensive deli dispensing sun-dried tomatoes (etc) but does have a nice and wireless enabled pub which is where we are writing this on a wet afternoon as nowhere else on the Islands have we found a good internet connection (hence the delay since our last post).

Next update likely from Ireland in a week or so.