Current location: at anchor in St Helen's Pool, Scillies
Places visited since previous post: River Fal: St Just, Mylor. Scillies: St Agnes / Gugh (the Cove), St Mary's (Porthcrssa Bay)
It is day thirteen of our trip and we said goodbye to Dad and Lucy yesterday after a fantastic few days on board. They arrived just as significant things were starting to pack up on us, and indeed we had to divert them from Newlyn to Falmouth as Snow Goose had scuppered our plans. Despite the diversions and delays, they squeezed themselves into the forward cabin, put up with the very reluctant sliding doors and sharing the heads with us, and were entirely uncomplaining for the whole trip. We really had a wonderful time with them.
I mentioned "significant things starting to pack up". Snow Goose is the same age as me, but I think on balance I am ageing rather better. No sooner have we fixed one thing than something else breaks. For the first couple of days it was just broken blocks (pulleys) and replacing rusty shackles. The outgoings in the chandlery were minimal. After a couple more days, it became clear that both our fresh water pumps - the foot pump in the galley and the hand pump in the heads - were on their way out. I am an uncomplaining galley slave, but fifty pumps with the foot just to fill the kettle seemed excessive, and the enlarging puddle of water by my foot was suspicious. I reported to the ship's engineer, and after a more significant trip to the chandlery he returned with two new pumps, replaced both, and extraction of fresh water from the tank is now considerably easier.
Then, a week into our trip, our starter motor gave up on us. We sailed merrily off our mooring in St Just, planning to head to Newlyn. The wind died, so we went to start the engine... but the engine showed no signs of life. I turned the boat to try and ghost towards a safe anchorage, whilst Angus opened up the engine, stuck his head in, hit something with a hammer, and hey presto, it started. Hammer-hitting is not an ongoing recommended method of coaxing a starter motor into action, particularly when heading offshore in no wind to the Scillies, so we crossed the River Fal to Mylor in search of a more permanent solution. We found a lovely engineer, waited a day for a new starter motor to be couriered, parted with more hard earned cash, and were ready to go again.
With Dad and Lucy now aboard, and the sun shining, we headed for St Mawes for the afternoon, before a night passage to the Scillies. As we left the dock, we noticed to our slight desperation that our depth sounder had now decided to stop working. Anchored in St Mawes, Eloise, Lucy and I headed for shopping, beach and ice-creams, leaving the men on board grappling with wires in the bilges, armed with a multi-meter, electronics textbook and depth sounder log book. Angus also dived below the boat to check for weed, but all to no avail.
The upshot of this is we have been sailing (well, motoring) around the Scillies, one of the trickiest and rockiest places in the UK, using a good old fashioned lead-line to "sound" our depth. Eloise is relishing this purist form of navigation, and can be regularly heard to ask, "Daddy, shall we just go up on deck and check the depth with the lead line?". It is amazing what little people pick up, and how quickly.
Tonight we are anchored in St Helen's Pool, with just three other boats, and it is a glorious evening. We spent most of today on the uninhabited island of St Helen's island, home to a ruined hermitage built by St Elidius in the 10th century, and a "pest house" where unfortunate sailors with plague were dropped off en route to England in the 18th century. For much of the day we were the only people on the island. When some kayakers arrived, Eloise rushed over and said, "Would you like me to give you a hand pulling it up the beach?", before putting her back into the task. It was very sweet and funny to watch.
We could not have hoped for better weather to enjoy the views, the birds and the sea life here. Our next conundrum will be when to make the crossing to Ireland, which we hope to do this weekend, but at 135 miles it will take us over 24 hours, and we can only just carry enough fuel to make it that far. We feel a little uncomfortable setting off with no wind forecast, just in case of engine failure... But there is no huge rush. For now we will just enjoy the friendliness, remoteness, maritime history and stark beauty of this incredible Archipelago. Tomorrow we are going to Tresco to visit the famous gardens (all twenty acres of them). And the biggest news of the evening is that the resident engineer managed to locate a dodgy connection in the depth sounder, so it is back in action, and after four days of faultless readings, the lead line can take a rest back in the cupboard. Until next time...
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