Parked downtown (Isles of Scilly)

Located south west of Great Britain’s mainland, the Isles of Scilly are a beautiful archipelago renowned for their sand beaches and amazing blue water. For the passage to these islands, we had constant Force 7 winds, with gusts over 35 knots. Fabule moved fast through the water. While speed is exhilarating, there is a limit above which the strain is too strong on the rigging. We kept reducing the sails and still made good progress toward our destination.

We arrived at the main island late afternoon and attached the boat to a visitor’s mooring at St Mary’s pool. Then, we relaxed watching the sunset.

A breakfast and a show

Little did we know what this windy night had in store for us. While it was still pitch black, a loud sound woke us both up. Running up on deck, we found out that our brand new mooring line had chafed through. We were drifting amidst unlit boats and a forest of mooring buoys. Immediately, we started the engine and the boat responded well, but after a strong back burst to avoid a buoy, we could not use it anymore. As a last option, to avoid getting too close to the water front houses, Yan dropped the anchor which stopped the boat. Then, we waited for the tide to fall and reveal where we would land. The next morning, while taking their breakfast and looking at the view, the guests of the sea front hotels discovered that there was a nice sailboat parked right on the beach.

In retrospect, we realize how lucky we were. We avoided several obstacles in the water and on the beach as well. With the lifting centerboard, Fabule can be beached without a problem. However, you usually do it on purpose and choose the nature of the sea ground carefully. People from Hugh Town soon came to see us on the beach, investigating if we had intentionally parked our boat so close to the pubs and grocery. We got tremendous help from Keith, Carol and Jake (Schooners Hotel) as well as from Sam (Harbour). By the next high tide, we needed to fix the engine and get Fabule back into deeper waters, without getting the propeller or the rudder entangled in the many floating ropes. We then safely attached Fabule to the mooring again using two mooring lines for redundancy. The next night went by without surprises.

A sunny day on St Mary’s

On Sunday morning, we took the dinghy ashore and set for a walk along the Garrison wall that was erected around St Mary’s as a defense system over the last 350 years. This walk provides stunning views along the way. Some courageous swimmers could not resist the temptation to test these magnificent blue waters, despite the temperature that was far from tropical.

Shaped like a star, the former fort on Garrison Point was converted to a heritage-style hotel. It was a delight to have a drink in the gardens created inside the ramparts.

Strong winds were forecasted for the upcoming days and very little shelter is to be found in the islands. On Monday, we sailed Fabule back to Falmouth during a beautiful night sail. The wind powered us from St Mary’s road right until the inner Harbor of Falmouth.