I'm not a bad sailor...I hate the Scillonian 3. We left Hugh Town nearly 15 minutes early, the boat was packed. Monday's stranded passengers as well as to-day's. We sat on the top deck in warm sunshine, enjoying a good view of the St Mary coastline as we took the long way round through the Agnes channel. Low tide again.
Soon after, we started rolling in earnest. I was sat next to the metal bars protecting the edge and spent the next 3 hours being flung into them at regular intervals. I could not control the slide along the wooden slatted seats. Pam had wisely placed her soft bag between her and the metal - I didn't have a suitable fender.
I did try to walk to the other side at one point - a cry of Whale went up - that was a mistake, I was lucky to get back in one piece. And I didn't see the whale. All on a 'calm' sea !
As the mainland came into distant view, the birding improved. Gannets had been in view much of the time, now we started seeing Auks, mainly Razorbills with a few Guillemots and a couple of puffins. Best birds were a single Balearic Shearwater and three Grey Phalaropes which flew pretty close to us. Someone called a Fea's Petrel, the other side of the boat again and hardly anyone saw it. I got very cold as the sun dropped.
Off to the chaos of the quay. Our luggage was unloaded from the crates by dock men but it was as bad as the luggage carousel at airports trying to weasel through to your own bags.Pam went off to do that whilst I looked after the three pieces of hand luggage (two were Pam's) and got into the car parking vehicle waiting nearby.
A quick and efficient transfer to Ludgvan before driving to Hayle M and S to buy an evening meal and to-morrow's breakfast. We were just in time, they called closed as we got to the cashier.
Pam hates driving in the dark but, at least it was dry and the traffic light. Exeter TraveLodge is in the process of being re-furbished, we'd been asked if we wanted to transfer the booking but knew that we would not be there during working hours. Our room had been done and was very nice indeed. Enough time to find out the Man U score in the European Cup match - 1-0 - before going to bed.
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