We didn’t sail from Land’s End to St. Mary’s! Although our Westray 16, given the right weather, is certainly capable of it, we were not sure we were willing to risk being delayed on the mainland waiting for a suitable weather window, or worse to be marooned when it was time to sail back to get back to home and work.

Instead the crane on the Scillonian at Penzance swung Rachel aboard for the 3½ hour voyage, costing around £200 return. Once on the quay on St. Mary’s we wheeled Rachel complete with camping gear aboard, on her trolleys down the adjacent small slipway and then motored across to Bryher some 2 miles to windward. The Scillies have 5 main islands and myriad uninhabited isles and drying rocks. The camping fields on Bryher were to be our land base. We soon set up camp and hired a secure mooring for Rachel to save too much heaving up and down the beach. Bryher is small and particularly quiet with narrow tracks as roads and tractors instead of cars so walking was very relaxing! There are lots of cliffs, small beaches and small hills to explore although the length of the island could be covered in an hour! We used Rachel to sail or motor to the other islands including St. Mary’s, which does have quite a lot of cars and buses and could be compared to Hythe and the Waterside for size, but with much lower density of housing and population. In the mild winter, without many other visitors of course, the islands must be very quiet and even more relaxing.

On a quiet day we sailed north out of New Grimsby Sound, past Hangman’s Rock into the swell of the Atlantic, past Tresco and Round Island to visit St. Martins, where we came ashore at the one hotel. This hotel has Caribbean style gardens with casual tables, parasols and very smart staff. I suspect our relaxed sailing gear was only just acceptable in the luxurious bar. By the time we had enjoyed a drink in the sun the tide had gone down and there was just enough water to slide through the beautifully clear water over the characteristically white sands to complete the circumnavigation of Tresco.

On another day we sailed out to the Eastern Isles in the hope of seeing seals, but had to be satisfied with a lovely uninhabited island with lagoon and seabirds. We did see seals on other days. The seals seemed as interested in us as we were in them.

With suitable winds we reached St. Agnes which is a very rugged island but with sheltered lanes and a range of small B & B houses. There were sub-tropical plants in gardens and hedgerows. There were gorgeous views, of course, out over the mass of reefs to the Bishop Rock light and the open Atlantic beyond. Like the other larger islands, St. Agnes has an excellent camp-site, in this case right on the rocky beach.

Other highlights of the holiday included two excellent evening catches of mackerel from Rachel in New Grimsby Sound, a tour of the gardens on Tresco, watching the remarkably elegant and fast gigs in the races between the islands and home-made bread and cakes from the Bryher Post Office. All too soon it was time to de-pitch, load Rachel and motor back across calm seas to St. Mary’s for the return ferry.

For the record the sea was too cold for us to swim and although we had a lot of sun, several days were windy enough for us to prefer exploring our own island. If you want to stay on the islands booking is essential.