Day 15 Wednesday, April 24th Isles of Scilly

We awoke sailing between St Agnes and St Mary's and soon we were anchored in home territory.  We breakfasted and our first island of the day was Tresco where we were going to visit the gardens as part of the cruise.  The local boat, Surprise, 

red squirrels

was our ferry to Tresco.  It is some 

King Neptune

years since we went round the gardens and so we were looking forward to it.  We saw King Neptune, the long walk and the red squirrels which were thriving and spreading from the gardens.  There were some new additional plants and areas to explore.  We spent a considerable time 

The long walk

looking across the gardens

making the most of the opportunity 

pretty flowers

and as we began to flag we went to the garden cafe for a coffee.  More squirrels, 

Tresco  helicopter

local birds and golden pheasants accompanied us.  After this we made our way back to Carn Near and the inflatables back to the Maud for lunch.

the Maud from Sapphire

After lunch we had arranged to go to St Mary's and meet up with Heather and Alan.  It was good to see them and convenient as it allowed us leave with them a bag of thicker clothes which we had brought with us for the 

northern, colder stops on our voyage.  We had a cup of tea with them in the Kavorna and updated with local news.  We had a good view of the Maud as we made our way back in the Sapphire from St Mary's. 

lady's gig race

Dinner soon followed and then we realised that a lady's gig race was forming around us.  We made our way to the top open deck and had 

our home

a grandstand view of the race progressing.  It also gave us an opportunity to photograph our house from the boat.