Just a short hop from St Agnes is the bay of Porthcressa on the south side of St Mary’s, the largest of the Scilly islands. Anchoring is free everywhere in the Scillies, and the pilot books still refer to Porthcressa being an anchorage. However last year about half the suitable anchorage space was laid with mooring buoys. They need maintenance and aren’t free. They do allow more boats to fit in safely, and so are a good thing. However in very settled and uncrowded conditions we didn’t need to use a buoy and were able to lift the keel and anchor in the relative shallows inside of the buoys.

We went ashore to explore the town, replenished some provisions and then back to the boat for lunch. I had some work to do, but that’s not so bad when your office is in the sunshine.