Our first day in the Scillies dawns bright and sunny, or we suppose it did as none of us actually clocked the dawn.

We plan to mooch around St Mary’s today and then take in the other islands later in the week. The capital, Hugh Town, is like going back several decades,  but the harbour is buzzing with fishing boats and tourist tours.

Meandering the little streets, we’re struck by the flowers…it really has a little micro climate…

Elevenses in the Anchor then a little light souvenir shopping before lunch in a brillant cafe next to the gig racing club. We’re reminded of beach bars in Greece or Portugal.

The gigs, which seemed to have originated here, were originally used for smuggling or for collecting salvage cargoes from the many vessels that ran aground on the rocks and treacherous waters round these islands. It seems that communities on St Mary’s and St Agnes in particular became quite rich on this source of income, and many of the current buildings come from that period.

Lighthouses, built to prevent shipwrecks, became a source of irritation to the islanders, to the extent that the light on St Agnes was frequently ‘unavailable ‘!

We wander over to Porth Cressa and the old harbour for Hugh Town which is the island’s capital. We passed it on the way in, but opted for St Mary’s pool which is more sheltered from the forecast south easterlies. At the moment though, it is idyllic…

The rather hectic afternoon is spent with ice creams watching the general business of the harbour and the loading of the Scillonian, which is the island’s main link with the mainland. It is a very old fashioned process involving cranes and chains….none of your modern ro ro or containerised stuff here thank you.

A small fishing boat lands, and Yee Tak spies a crate full of something fishy. Her usual chat up of fishermen fails this time as all the crawfiah are ‘spoken for’ and will go to Newlyn for onward passage to Portugal. Interestingly, he called them crawfish, which we all thought was just an American term.

Back in the rubber dinghy to Heydays. and we have gin in the last of the afternoon sun.

Over on the beach, Wednesdays is ladies gig racing day and there are races at 7 and 8. There are 10 gigs out today in each race, so presumably there are at least 120 of St Mary’s  finest women for whom rowing is a major past time. The gigs nearly faded out after steamships and better navigation reduced the number of shipwrecks and therefore the resultant loss of salvage income, but now they are thriving as a sport and have even become international.