Sailing home from the Scillies

Simon Tong

We decided to maximise the good weather in the Scillies and do the sail home in one push. 0600 departure to reach the Lizard on the turn of the tide. No wind so had to motor. A glassy smooth sea but dolphins seals and numerous birds for company, including a lone puffin and a large flock of Sherwaters. Once we made the Cornish coast the wind filled in from the West and we managed to run wing on wing with genoa poled out all the way through the rest of the day and night until we turned Berry Head the following morning. The night passages were challenging, with a moderate following sea the autohelm struggled to hold a good course so a lot of hand steering with not much light to orientate ourselves. Rae was joined on her watch by an exhausted pigeon who hitched a ride on our solar panel, and was still there when I came on watch at 0100, and finally left us about 0600 when he had recovered enough to fly! We had to put the engine on for the last hour to make sure we got to the mouth of the Exe before the ebb fjlly emptied the river. As it was we were punching up against 3kts of Spring tide. Slow going but made it to the mooring with 50cm to spare! Great end to a great trip, we will definitely be returning to the Scillies!