A perfect morning to wake up to. Not a cloud in the sky, calm blue sea and warm sunshine, even early! We needed to get a gaz cylinder refill if possible, since we reckoned our present one must be nearly empty. I phoned Sibleys the fuel people just to check they had the 907 in stock. 👍 so after breakfast we dinghied over to the quay. I also made use of the showers which were really good.. somewhat surprising since they’re public ones. Just need a £1 coin. It’s such a bustling place. People waiting for boats and ferries everywhere, with dogs and bags galore.
We set off about half an hour before high tide as we needed maximum depth today. Even more than yesterday. Also we’re going down to neaps so the high tide is less high, and the range between low and high tides, is reduced. This means navigation of shallow waters has to be accurate. But the water is calm and clear, and today we could practically see where all the underwater hazards are.. 2.5 nm isn’t very far but intense concentration was required. Fortunately the plotter appeared to be very accurate, but nevertheless you have to go a particular route which goes straight across what is charted as green “ land” on the screen. The Depth went as low as 2.5 m which meant we had 60 cm below our keel at that point. 😳 eventually arriving on the other side, we spotted a few vacant yellow and red mooring buoys and picked one up in the North portion of the sound, opposite hangman’s island. … which even has a gibbet on it😳! We should be nicely protected against the SW strong winds forecast for tomorrow, and exploring on land will be the thing to do. However today is a beach day! We took the dinghy over to Bryher which lies to the west of us ( Tresco to the east). What an idyllic day. The pictures tell the story. We sunbathed, read, swam and watched people enjoying themselves . Later we wandered up the sandy beach path to the Fraggle rock inn . We could have been in Greece or Cyprus…… such a lovely day 😎.
What I learned today…. that although someone has put a gibbet on the top… there is debate about why this little rocky island has this name. It may have simply been derived from the Cornish “ aw main” meaning island, or the more dramatic explanation that it was the site of gallows used in the civil war. Cromwell’s castle nearby at the entrance to the sound on Tresco, was built in 1651 to keep out the Dutch.
St Marys quay 
Cruise ship anchored 
Across Tresco flats 
View from… 
Fraggle rock bar
Hangman’s island 
Made Eilean a necklace
Traditional Scilly ferry
Angelique 