Day 18, Wednesday 13th June, 2018. Short motor across Tresco Flats from Hugh Town to New Grimsby Sound ( Up the Mariners!!! ). Tresco.

Woke up this morning at just gone 5 am … dawn breaking… noticed that the wind turbine had stopped turning and there was no slapping of waves behind my head in the aft cabin… so ? No wind and very calm. What to do? Another day moored off Hugh Town on St. Mary’s ?? Glanced at the tidal clock on the forward bulk head ( given to me by 1679 Squadron Erith School Squadron for being their President for nearly 21 years… a jolly fine and useful retirement gift … much appreciated on the high seas )… the tidal clock indicated 1 hour after high water in St. Mary’s.

We had planned to sail the 9 n.miles around the Scilly Isles this morning… taking two hours or so… to find a new mooring in New Grimsby Sound off the beautiful island of Tresco. I reasoned that if we left immediately with this calm weather and 5 hours of high tide… we could do the short cut straight out of Hugh Town then north through the gap between Bryher and Tresco… about 2 n.miles instead of the planned 9. A risky route for the uninitiated but I had done it once before coming the other way from Tresco southwards to Hugh Town.

We did it in 50 minutes. The team responded brilliantly and we were ready to sail in 30 minutes and let go the big yellow mooring buoy and headed north across Saint Mary’s Road ( not a road as such, a waterway )…. however a big, white German cruise ship appeared in front of us, but stopping to take on board a pilot, we managed to navigate round her ( for the uninitiated all boats and ships are “she’s “)…

At the press of a button our one ton cast iron keel was raised as we navigated the shallow waters where the depth went down from 5m to 1.8m …. our draft with keel up is 0.8m .. so we very gingerly and with great care, worked our way through the gap. The waters around the Scilly Isles are beautifully clear… you could see the weedy, sandy bottom.. beautiful in an aesthetic sense… but a bit scary if you are trying to move a 15 ton yacht through the shallows.

After 50 minutes we had arrived at New Grimsby Sound. Mike phoned the Harbour master before we reached our destination and he informed us that there was a vacant mooring bouy. Christine and Mike on the foredeck… working expertly with the “handy duck”… tethered Poli Poli to a big orange mooring buoy. Pleased to be in a beautiful spot… and then the sun came out! Breakfast time… we had arrived at 8.20am.

New Grimsby Sound viewed from West Tresco, Poli Poli is moored just off top centre… closer to the island of Bryher. We had to use our dinghy to come ashore.