With a triumphant circumnavigation of the island under my belt I gazed a little farther afield for the next day’s activity. Actually I didn’t so much gaze farther afield as farther a sea. If you actually want to look at something that isn’t on St Mary’s you have to get on a boat. This is the only way of getting to most of the other islands. Only St Mary’s and Tresco have airfields, to get anywhere else you need to catch a local boat. The St Mary’s Boatsman’s Association posts details of what boats will be going where and the associated times on various notice boards around Hugh Town each morning. I had my eye on a trip that would take me out around the Eastern Islands, the lure of seals was dangled as an incentive to leave dry land in a not particularly large boat.
Tickets were sold from a kiosk at the pier which was just large enough to cram a single person inside with the application of a certain level of cruelty. I trotted along there at 9am to learn it didn’t open until 9.30. I returned at 9.31 and joined a long queue of people clamouring for tickets. The victim shoehorned into the kiosk sold me a ticket and gave me the name of the appropriate boat. Where would it turn up? Probably at the No 2 Steps unless the captain changes his mind. Men, the undeniably female kiosk dweller informed me, tend to do that.
The legendary unreliability of men notwithstanding I found it easy to identify my boat. I just looked for the smallest and least consequential looking vessel jostling for space at the wharf. Yep, that was it. It was proudly named Britannia and in defiance of the ticket sellers dark prognostications the captain brought it into the No 2 Steps. The fact that there was already a boat tied up there (the unfortunately named Golden Spray) didn’t bother him at all. My fellow passengers and I clambered over the Golden Spray and onto the Britannia. The Britannia’s crew consisted of the captain, the bloke who sat next to him and a girl who appeared about fourteen who did all of the tying the boat up at various moorings work. There were also two dogs. One had its own facebook page the other didn’t. I’m unaware as to whether this created any tension between them.
Detaching ourselves from the Golden Spray we headed out to sea or at least that bit of the sea surrounded by the Scilly Isles. The journey allowed us to gawp at sea birds (helpfully identified by our captain) and beautiful outcrops of rocks and islands which collectively make one of the most visually appealing hazards to navigation I’ve ever seen. Seals were the big draw but seabirds were also on some people’s agendas and cameras were plied vigorously as we cruised slowly past. I did take a photo of a shag on a rock but apart from that I saved my powder for the seals.
Then we hit St Martin’s or at least we tied up alongside the island of St Martin’s long enough for those who were alighting there to get off. Those of us who were getting more obsessed with seals by the minute dug our nails into the gunwhales and refused to move. For the record St Martin’s seemed nice at first glance. Leaving the island behind us we headed out to the Eastern Isles a collection of rocks projecting from the sea. Not projecting from the sea were a collection of ships from various periods in history that got a little close to said rocks and have found new homes on the seabed.
We cruised out past the Eastern Isles.
“There might be seals here,” announced the captain; there weren’t. “But they’re far more likely to be on the other side which is more sheltered,” continued the captain recovering magnificently. We puttered along the more sheltered side, the captain pointed out a seal. The boat was in danger of swamping as we rushed to photograph it. Then the captain pointed out another seal and another and another. Finally he stopped announcing and allowed the seal covered rocks to speak for themselves. There were seals draping themselves over every sea accessible piece of stone they could find. In the water seal heads (presumably attached to seal bodies otherwise this blog has suddenly taken a dark turn) bobbed in the waves.
Have you ever noticed that a seal on a rock bears an uncanny resemblance to a giant leopard slug? Thoughts such as these ran through my head as I burned through my camera’s battery taking photos of seals (or possibly wet rocks). In my defence I would also take photos of giant leopard slugs although I might not hire a boat to go out and find them.
With Sealfest 2023 concluded the Britannia turned its nose for home. Or rather it turned its nose back to St Martin’s to pick up people who wanted to get back to St Mary’s. On arrival the captain announced that if anyone wanted to get off and take a look around there would be another boat along in an hour. I decided I did and bade the Britannia farewell.
St Martin’s has not one but two moorings for boats. On our way out we had stopped at High Town but due to the dropping tide had pulled in at Low Town on the way back. With the attractions of Low Town being confined to a resort I wasn’t a guest at I strolled up what appeared to be a footpath but was actually the island’s main road.
There were farms left and right with the occasional cow but the principal crop was flowers. Until tourism took off in the fifties flower exports were the Scillies main source of revenue. Given the profusion of wildflowers it’s a little difficult to tell whether the locals farm the flowers or just build walls around ones that were already there. Which leads me to another drawcard for the Scillies. Bumblebees! They have got to be the world’s cutest insect and the Scillies are crawling with them. I made my way to High Town which is the urban centre on St Martin’s (it has a church and a cafe) and enjoyed a Cornish tea with views over tiny little fields covered in flowers and an island studded sea beyond.
What with the lingering I was late getting back for the two o’clock boat but that didn’t matter because the boat was late coming. We eyed each other up and mutually agreed not to mention it again. The boat was the Golden Spray of course. So I spent the last bit of my day out sitting in a Golden Spray. Normally I have to pay extra for that.
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