It has come to our attention via a number our concerned readers that our last posting to say we had arrived in the Isles of Scilly didn’t actually get posted!!  Many thanks for your concerns - we never knew so many people were following our blog.

We arrived safely early on Tuesday morning with the thick fog from the previous three days having finally cleared, but it was still very cold, grey and misty.    After a few hours of sleep and a quick tidy up we explored ashore.  Then the sun came out, it warmed up and we thought - wow what a fantastic place to be.  It feels very British but still very ‘small island’ so we feel we are still prolonging the dream and are not quite home yet.  It is stunningly beautiful here and when it’s sunny well up there with The Caribbean.

There are though some good things about arriving back in the UK, we went to the pub and had a proper pint of ale with some wholesome pub grub, the supermarket sells lots of yummy things we haven’t seen for a year and the shops sell nice clothes.

On Wednesday the sun shone all day with a light breeze.   It was absolutely perfect  Scillies weather.  It was really calm so we went on an extended dinghy safari to the uninhabited island of Samson and had lunch on a beautiful sandy beach.  The sea was so blue it really felt like we were back in the Caribbean!

Back in St Marys it was RNLI flag day and the lifeboat was alongside the quay for all to visit.  Alan got very excited about being able to poke his head into every corner and crawl through the engine room.

Today it has been a little overcast, but very still with virtually no wind.  The forecast is for very settled weather which is perfect for here and ideal for exploring the Scillies as many of the anchorages can only be visited in settled weather.

It’s very busy with yachts, but there still appears to be room in the anchorages and visitor buoys are still available.  Most of the boats are French or Irish.  It’s strange seeing everyone piling 6 people into their tiny inflatable dinghies with at best a 2 hp outboard.  For the first time we have “dinghy supremacy” as we whiz along in our RIB with it’s 6hp outboard.     J

We plan to stay here several more days and explore some of the other anchorages.  We’ll then head east to Cornwall and Devon where we hope to meet up our respective families and our friends James & Robin who are heading west in their boat.

There’s no wifi for 3G coverage here so we’ll have wait until we can upload photos.  This lack of connectivity helps maintain the illusion that we are not home yet!!