Isles of Scilly

[Mick F]

It seems that if you live in Devon or Cornwall - and can prove it - you can catch the ferry over to Hugh Town from Penzance as a day return for £25 per person. Offer is open until October.

Theoretically - in principle - Mrs Mick F could take the train to Penzance, and I could cycle there, and we could stay overnight.
Then we could take the morning ferry and I could take the bike, cycle round every single road on St Mary's (15miles perhaps) whilst Mrs Mick F has a leisurely wander round the town, then we could meet up and take the afternoon ferry back to Penzance to stay overnight again.
Following morning, she gets the train home, and I cycle home.
All it needs is for us to get this organised.
75miles each way to Penzance from here. I could take one route there, and another route home.

What's not to like?

[RodT]

The 75 miles to through Cornwall.

[al_yrpal]

The Scillonian!


Aaaaaagh!

Al

[Mick F]

The 75 miles to through Cornwall.

Not hard, just difficult unless you're used to it. You need to pick your routes.
I find riding in flat/less hilly places a little boring.

The Scillonian!
Aaaaaagh!

The only time we've been to IoS was by fixed wing from LE airport. From what I remember, it was more like a minibus with wings!
One seat in the tail, two(?) double seats in front of that, then the pilot and a passenger sitting side-by-side at the front.

[Jon Lucas]

The Scillonian is better known as the Sickonian, but provided you can stomach the ride, it is a lovely trip.

If you haven't been there before, then having a £25 day trip is probably worth it, but if you go that far, it's much more enjoyable to stay there for a week or so and get to know all the islands. Bryher and St Agnes are my favourites, but they are all worth visiting, and all very different. Hugh Town may seem small and quaint when you arrive, but after you've spent a week on the smaller islands, it feels like the big city.

Quite a few people I know who have been there then end up spending every holiday there. It tends to get to you like that.

[al_yrpal]

The Scillonian is better known as the Sickonian, but provided you can stomach the ride, it is a lovely trip.

The first time I went there was in 1971 when we rented Smugglers Cottage on Tresco. It was all pretty undiscovered at that time. In the morning you went off to get your milk with a little pail with a lid, the milk was still warm. In the late afternoon a fishernan called in with lobsters, crabs or fish. It was idylic, you had beaches to yourself. Now Tresco is full of yah yahs paying through the nose. They have stripped Shell Bay of all the fantastic shells that used to be there. We still have the bottle lamp bases we covered in polyfilla and shells. As long as you avoid other holidaymakers the coastline and beaches are unspoilt. Went back 7 years ago on our boat and as a result of that later took the Mrs for a week on St Marys near to Mary Wilsons, travelling to different islands almost every day, its a fantastic scenic place.

On the Scillonian two old ladies were complaining that it was rocking around a lot. I pointed out that we hadnt left Mounts Bay yet! She has a shallow draft because of all the rocks. Shouldnt bother old matelots though..

Al

[jgurney]

The Scillonian is better known as the Sickonian, but provided you can stomach the ride, it is a lovely trip.

Seconded - went in 2015 in a group of 7, of whom 3 were sick. At one point it was impossible to use the toilets for the usual purpose as they were full of people throwing up into them, with the resulting smell being hard for others to take. Her flat bottom and shallow draft means that she does bounce about a lot in the seas where the English and Bristol Channels meet.

[Mike Sales]

Went back 7 years ago on our boat and as a result of that later took the Mrs for a week on St Marys near to Mary Wilsons, travelling to different islands almost every day, its a fantastic scenic place.

What is your boat?

[al_yrpal]

Our boat was a Moody 29, 'Musketeer' . Had it for 20 years, shared it with two mates, loads of fun, sold now.

Al

[Mike Sales]

Our boat was a Moody 29, 'Musketeer' . Had it for 20 years, shared it with two mates, loads of fun, sold now.

Al

Similar to the boat in which I visited Scilly. That was a friend's LM 27, a Swedish motorsailor. Carpet slipper sailing we called it. Last year I crewed from Stornaway to Shoreham for him, part of his circumnavigation.

[Mick F]

Shouldnt bother old matelots though..

No, not at all.

This one is of HMS Gurkha in the North Atlantic in October 1974 on a joint maritime exercise. Rough for weeks on end.
I have other photos of other of my ships somewhere.

Gurkha.jpg (22.44 KiB) Viewed 807 times

[al_yrpal]

Ah.. HMS… whenever we saw one of those we used to do a bit of Ensign dipping Asking to get sunk..

Al

[whoof]

They have stripped Shell Bay of all the fantastic shells that used to be there. We still have the bottle lamp bases we covered in polyfilla and shells.

Al

[Mike Sales]

Ah.. HMS… whenever we saw one of those we used to do a bit of Ensign dipping Asking to get sunk..

Al

I once dipped for a navy boat in Carlingford Lough (down the middle of which runs the Irish/UK border) but had no reponse. Then my pal pointed out that the flag I was dipping was the Welsh one.
We were then boarded by an armed youth from the British warship. This was in a seventeen foot "yacht" but still, we could have been IRA infiltrators under a false flag with a load of guns and Semtex. A miniature Asgard.

[Norman H]

Another Scilly story:

I organised a diving trip to the Isles of Scilly in the early eighties. We loaded all our stuff into a container in Penzance, including all the diving and camping gear and two inflatables with outboard engines. When we docked at Hugh Town on St Mary's it was loaded onto a barge and towed across to Bryher where we were staying.

It was a lovely bright sunny day for the crossing but quite windy with a big swell. We were on the forward deck of the Scillonian and another group, possibly more divers, were posing for a group photo. The photographer was facing astern and didn't see the huge wave that came over the bow and completely soaked him and his camera. His mates thought it was very amusing, so did we.