Day -2 St. Martin's being battered

We woke this mornng with gale force winds against our windows as we are receiving the first instalment of Atlantic Storm Henry.  We both were awake early because of the wind.  I'll put some pictures showing St. Martin's on a similarly windy day before Christmas.

It is better for the cattle if they are on the sheltered side of the island.

The weather curtailed some of our activities today.  We were due to have a Methodist Chapel service this afternoon but because all boats were cancelled the minister was unable to make it.  Sometimes in theses situations I take the service but because there are so few of us here at the moment we decided to cancel.  We were also due to have a clay pigeon shoot arranged this morning but because of the rain and wind we all bottled out of it.

My time was taken when Christine discovered that her freezer was not working.  We established that the power to it had failed but we were able to connect it to another socket and all was soon operating successfully again.  We keep the freezer in our shed and 3 out of the 4 socket points there had failed.  We will have repair whatever has happened. Living on an isolated island does sometimes have its difficulties!

We had Christine's Uncle Rodney down for lunch and it was good to see him and hear that his washing machine had operated successfully.  We had a chat - the last one over lunch for several weeks - and said possibly goodbye until the middle of March.

You may be wondering who will look after Button and our house when we are away.  We have initially arranged with neighbours to feed the cat and later our friends Colin and Sheila will take care of things, so that should work out OK.

We did some trial packing as well today and so should be ready for the final pack later tomorrow - it is all getting very close but we seem fairly well organised?

Day -3 St. Mary's & back

Our holiday is rapidly approaching and today I was delegated to go to St. Mary's to take our first case to be sent as luggage in advance.  The boat was 10am and so I loaded the luggage in our old 1986 Landrover Defender (now becoming a  rarity), fired the old girl up and made for Higher Town.  Waiting was a jet boat and we soon made our way to the metropolis.  It was overcast and threatening to rain and so it was lucky the Skybus minibus was on time and took our case straightaway.




The jetboat travelling well

The picture shows the jetboat ride - the dark object at the top left is not a horrendous cloud but my finger getting in the way of the lens! Nobody sat outside because the waves were splashing over the side and anyone there would have been soaked.

The return boat was not until 12:30 and so i had time to get some money from the bank, shop in the Coop and get a pre-holiday haircut. I also had time to buy a small hot pasty to eat on the quay while waiting for the boat.

When I arrived home I watched some cup footy on the tv - Colchester v Spurs - and then we went to Christine's Uncle Rodney (he's aged 90 and lives on his own) to help him instal his new washing machine.  I know some are thinking that I haven't got a clue about washing machines but i did gain some experience when we had the laundry on our campsite.  Having set that up we came home for tea and I also watched some more cup football - Liverpool v West Ham - which was a boring goalless draw with a replay to follow at Upton Park.

We had a relaxing evening but I think we will have to get more organised on the packing front tomorrow.

Preparing to travel

The Savills are about to start travelling again and hopefully someone may in interested in what we get up to!   We have started to pack for our next long-awaited journey to New Zealand.  We do not leave Scilly until next Tuesday (February 2nd) but because the luggage allowance on long haul is greater than Isles of Scilly Skybus we are going to send a case to Lands End by luggage in advance.  This early attempt also gives an opportunity to brush down the blogging skills. 

It has been a grey, dull, windy winter on Scilly (a lot different to summer) and that is making it even more attractive to find some warmth and sun. 

Button relaxed

View from our house

The not too wonderful view from our house this afternoon and our cat, Button, does not seem too perplexed by us packing.  Our journey to our destination will be quite complicated as we are stopping in London and Singapore on the way to Aukland.  We have never been to Singapore before and so that part is a bit of a discovery time.  On our way home we hope to stop in San Francisco for two nights as we did in 2013.  We also hope to meet some friends and family at various locations - keep tuned in to this page to find out how we get on.