Sailing to Scilly

I'm having to rely on the iPad to blog which is pretty basic alas. Some one should tell Steve Jobs to spend some of Apples huge money pile on making Safari more blogger friendly.

Anyhow here is the start of the Penzance to Scilly race as described here.

At Lands End

I am very much enjoying following the Fastnet on the web. If you haven't played around with the fab-tastic fleet tracker go on over and check it out by clicking here.

Partly its thrill the overwelming flood of little boat symbols as they pop out of the Solent like a cork. Then of course they ground to a halt, most just before Portland Bill, as the wind died last night.

The tracker means you can try to fathom the various tactics used. For example in the IRC 1 class one of the leading boats is Philippe Falle's Puma Logic, who was one of our class rivals when I did it and who gave tactics talk at a local sailing club. He went offshore after Portland and then back in for Start Head. Aha! thinks I, there was a plan there. But then the boats either side went right close in by Portland so its not a clear picture. Some seem to have gone all over the place - Quokka VII headed 90 degrees to the rhumb line for half the night.

But now they are getting on their way again and the big crush is about to get to Land's End which is where the picture above was taken. Actually its just before looking along the coast by Penzance, and in the distance you can see St. Michael's Mount emerging from the mist.

Wrecked on the Isles of Scilly

The picture above is the figure head of an old sailing ship. I don't know much about her except one thing - while she survives her ship was lost.

For this figure head and many others can be found in a corner of the Tresco Abbey Gardens called Valhalla after the old Norse mythical hall for slain warriors. In it are mementos of some of the many, many boats that have foundered off the Isles of Scilly.

Some of the wrecks that were lost in these treacherous waters can be found in this Wikipedia article. While there will have others that have been forgotten in years gone by, the list includes some wrecks of historical note.

One such was the loss of Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell's fleet on the 22nd October, 1707. As graphically re-told in Dava Sobel's Longitude, the Admiral had been warned of the danger by an unnamed seaman. Unfortunately for all Admiral Shovell rather than taking the man's advice had him hung for mutiny on the spot.

Sir Clowdisley nearly made it to safety, being one of just two washed ashore. But it really wasn't to be his day, as he was found and drowned by a local woman who took a fancy to his emerald ring.

From this disaster the Board of Longitude was formed, to solve once and for the tricky question of calculating the other coordinate in addition to Latitude that is required to fix the position of a boat.

With so many wrecks there are many possible stories to tell, but in this post will give just one more, the loss of the greatest ever pure sailing ship.

The Thomas W Lawson was a seven masted steel hulled schooner built in 1902 and was powered purely by the wind, having no auxiliary engine. While there were other sailing ships that were larger, they all had an engine.

Alas the Thomas W Lawson only sailed the seas for five years as it was wrecked on the Isles of Scilly in 1907. Amongst the relics in Valhalla on the island of Tresco is this, one of its lifebelts. The seas were so rough and rocks so perilous that even some of the sailors with them drowned.

We forget the dangers of the sea at our peril.

Wildlife in the Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly are a good place to go for wild-life.

Its been designated an area of outstanding natural beauty, home to seals and lots of birds including puffins.

Coming back from sailing the wayfarer the instructors at the sailing school (Australian of course, said "guys" a lot) asked if we had seen the seal?

Alas the answer was no.

In the evening as we discussed the events of our days my eldest niece was thrilled to report that she too had seen a seal.

Alas again, must have been looking in the wrong direction.

From this point on of course kept a good look out but was not to be rewarded by anything more exciting than one of the huge and hungry sea gulls (above).

Maybe it was the wrong time of year as October is meant to be peak for twitchers or maybe should have gone to another of the many islands.

No, I'm wrong, did see something else! A rabbit!

.... ok, maybe that isn't exactly ground breaking. Next time maybe.

Sailing in the Scillies

While over in the Scilly Isles we hired a Wayfarer for a day, and it was a lovely place to sail.

On the more sheltered north-east side of the islands you are protected from the Atlantic swell that can be seen breaking on the reefs further out. And on the Saturday the weather was just right - a gentle 15 knots of wind under blue skies turning the sea a translucent turquoise.

In the picture above you can see the "we're on holiday we'll de-rig the boat later" approach we took around lunch time. In fact there was a half a plan to sail again in the afternoon but was put off having soaked one set of clothes diving for a missing shackle and the key crewing nephew had other plans.

But in the morning we had a lot of fun!

Stuck on the Isles of Scilly

I've just got back from a long weekend in the Scilly Isles that ended up being a bit longer than expected.

It was a family get together on Tresco, one of the main islands in the archipelago, and we were due to fly back Monday lunch time. Alas conditions at the destination airport of Land's End were far from ideal, in fact best described as a thick pea-souper (see above)

So after many hours waiting in a very crowded and rather small airport on St Mary's we were sent back down to the harbour to get the ferry to Penzance.

Alas it got us there about an hour and a half after the last train to London, so my return home was delayed until today. However a lucky few were packed onto the helicopter that also goes to Penzance - but getting there a lot quicker.

It's a shame was unable to add my first trip on a 'copter to the long list of forms of transport for what was otherwise a rather good weekend!