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West Country COVID diary

this year. One indulgent favourite is
mooring up at the Pandora Inn (surely the
most perfect pub anywhere?) on an
afternoon tide, going for a long dog walk
around the creeks and woods to work up an
appetite, a pub dinner served to the cockpit
to maintain social distancing, a quiet night
settled on the mud of Restronguet creek,
and then heading off on the morning tide.
We managed to reach the centre of Truro,
only occasionally sliding over the mud.
Another favourite is the run to Fowey, with
a walk along the coast path to Polperro the
Pandora Inn next day. We have certainly begun to
perfect the ways to make cruising agreeable
to our sheepdog Rosie.
September
Some good pottering about in September, and then the wind swung again
to the north, so back to the Scillies in perfect conditions, this time with Lizzy
-Jane and Rosie for company, and very few other people about. We were
mostly anchored within the cosy embrace of Green Bay, where the day
always starts with the obligatory pre-breakfast swim around the boat. On
three consecutive days we walked the entire circumferences of St Mary’s,
Tresco and Bryer, where the landscapes are astonishingly varied, and we
heard seals howling for the first time. As the days pass on the Isles of Scilly,
the scale always expands, so that what seems small at the outset expands
in my mind, and, for example, the “Town” on Bryer does become a town,
rather than just a hamlet.

October
Again a month of mixed weather, but a sunny northerly in the second week
made a trip to Plymouth irresistible, with an eight hour broad reach from
Falmouth to the Mayflower Marina. There were heart-skipping moments
when we came amongst the shoals of leaping Bluefin tuna that have

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