This was the view from the 'summit' of St Martin's yesterday, Monday 15th August. 'Summit' because the islands are low lying and even their highest slopes are only pretty modest hills. St Martin's stands all of 40 metres high! I took the dinghy ashore to the beach near the hotel at "Lower Town" - no more than a collection of pretty cottages around the Hotel.
The island's about 5 miles long, so I wouldn't be able to cover all of it but I set out uphill with the objective of getting some good views. The first point of interest was the Seven Stones Pub after only a few minutes walk. This pretty lane runs up to the pub
I resisted the temptation of an early break and instead continued onwards and was soon in Tolkien land...
This path wound its way up through the woods for a few hundred yards before I emerged onto the heathland that seemed to cover most of the island...
a little further south towards St Mary's behind the cruise ship. This one...
... is to the north west.
After leaving the sumit from which I took the photos, I walked south east along the footpaths towards Higher Town just over a mile away.
The school (it must be one of the smallest in the country given the permanent population of the island is only 120) lies down a track just outside the 'town'. The only visible indication of it from the small road being this....
Rather charming I thought. I bought a few little gifts for the girls (granddaughters).
Next came the church ....
Followed by the shop/Post Office....
At this point I was in need of some refreshment having forgone lunch and so I consulted Google Maps. To my satisfaction there was a Tea Room only a little further on and so I headed there...
The standard portion included one scone only and so I 'had' to order a double. There was JUST enough jam and cream to supply both scones. It seems that portion cotrol has even reached this little corner of the UK! Still it was most pleasant - a close second to the cream tea that Basty, Joe and I had on St Agnes last week!
The Tea Room had lovely gardens as you can see and also a glass house with an impressive looking grape vine....
After stuffing myself I made my way back to Lower Town and the Dinghy along the southern coastal path.
On the inland side of the path were a number of little flower/vegable gardens cust into the sandy soil and coverd with netting...
Some boats had come prepared for beach paradise and had fitted legs so they could dry out on the beach, although in the photo below, the tide has risen and so they are once again in water...
Back at the beach where I had left the dinghy, I could see Bonny was still safely at anchor where I had left her..
The dinghy anchor however, was about to be covered by the rising tide and so I quickly waded in and pulled the dinghy in to the shore. Then I repositioned the ground tackle to take account of the still rising tide and went off in search of Middle Town. This was it....
When I turned round to head back I came across a couple of locals who seemed pretty content with life...
There was still plenty of daylight left so I took the dinghy over to Tean - all of quarter of a mile across Tean Sound. This photo is looking from it's north western end towards the south east....
And this is looking south towards St Mary's...
Bonny's out of shot to the left of the boat in the picture.
It was a bit late in the summer to see the wild flowers at their best, but a few isolated specimens remained of what were clearly once abundant, if small, blooms ...
Tean is now uninhabited but at some point in the not too distant past it clearly had at least a few inhabitants...
Most of the rocks and stones in Scilly are covered in this strange crispy dry stringy moss.
That night a change of wind from the north conspired to push Bonny across the narrow cut in which we were nchored and in the early hours of the morning around low tide we went aground for a couple of hours. It also rained most of the night, an event I was so unused to that I left the cockpit cushions out which of course got thoroughly soaked. With stronger winds due from the north on Tuesday, I moved Bonny the few hundred metres round the coirner to St Helen's Pool. It was more exposed but there was more room in the event of the anchor dragging.
I had a couple of attractive neighbours....
As the day developd the forecasted strong winds from the north did indeed develop. Before they becme too unruly I was visited by Peter and Bonnie from "Calico Jack" anchored a hundred metres or so behind Bonny and named after the Pirate of the same name...
Later in the afternoon, with the wind now blowing Force 6 from the north, I just happened to glance out from the cockpit and noticed that something had changed in the scene behind me. It took me a while to figure out what it was - my nearest neighbour was dragging her anchor and bearing down on Calico Jack and another boat. I had seen the crew go ashore earlier and so knew that there was no one on board. A collision with one or other of the other boats seemed pretty likely and/or the boat was in danger of ending up on the rocks beyond them both. Peter had clearly noticed and was on deck monitoring the situation. Earlier he had joked that he hoped the boat had it's insurance in good order. Only last year when in Scilly in a serious storm, another boat had dragged and impaled itself on his Bowsprit and then, in an attempt to disentangle itself, had collided with Calico's stern and damaged the Hydrovane!
I quickly grabbed a life-jacket, got into the dinghy and motored over to the dragging boat and let out a few more metres of chain which seemed to halt it's progress. I then went over to Calico for a quick conflab with Peter. He pointed out that the other boat was directly down wind of the dragger and suggested I go and warn him just in case. I did that and then headed over to St Helen's, where I had seen the crew land. I could see them exploring some ruins but they semed totally unaware that anything was amiss. Nearer the shore I managed to gain their attention and two of them quikly lauched their dinghy and got on board and then re anchored the boat.
I went back to Calico for a quick chat and was invited on board. After I had admired their fine ship, we spent the afternoon chatting and swapping stories. They were clearly very experienced sailors and and have covered a lot of miles including to the Carribean and the Med! Calico is moored in Wooton Creek on the Isle of Wight, which just happened to be one of my late Dad's favourite sailing destinations.
Back on Bonny I cooked dinner, wrote up this post and monitored the weather and the boat's position. With the approach of high tide the waves and swell were breakig through through the protective barrier of rocks to our north and the boat's motion was getting rather bouncy!
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