According to the pilot guide for our passage we shouldn’t leave until mid-morning so we followed the guidance and in rather murky conditions heaved up the anchor and set off for the Scillies. There was very little wind but as we approached the Runnel Stone buoy at Land’s End we actually managed to sail for a bit. Of course it didn’t last so it was back to motor sailing in a big swell as we headed out into the open sea. It was pretty grey and not very inviting.
As we approached the traffic separation scheme off the Longships (abbreviated to TSS, a kind of dual carriage way system for commercial shipping) a ship called us on VHF to ask our intentions. We said we would hold our course as we were the “stand on vessel”. However, as we were three yachts together we think he was confused as to which yacht was which and we had to do a quick manoeuvre to avoid being run down!!!
Excitement over and apart from the enjoyment of seeing more dolphins swimming round Harvard and once again thinking we might be able to sail as we had a brief period of more wind (sadly not) we motored on towards the Scillies. A bit boring and not much fun to be honest.
Safe arrival and as we knew the forecasted wind would be north westerly so we anchored in Porth Cressa, south of Hugh Town on St Mary’s happy to have made the crossing.