I’m up for 6am anchor watch today. The morning light is beautiful. It’s like being on a film set. In fact, it’s exactly like being on a film set as there’s a Game of Thrones prequel series being filmed at St Michael’s Mount.
We leave at 8am: our destination today is the Scilly Isles. The crossing from Penzance is often choppy but we seem to be clear of last week’s gales, and it’s fine weather for us. Today’s music for cleaning hour includes “What shall we do with a drunken sailor?”, but we don’t try any of the suggestions.
The wind is good and for the second time on this voyage we’re able to set the sails: the three we had last time and also one of the square sails. It’s lovely to glide along without the sound of the engine.
When we arrive in the Scillys the sunlit water is noticeably turquoise. Rachel the scientist profiles the water column alongside the Pelican: measuring chlorophyll content, of turbidity (cloudiness) and concentration phycoerythrin (a red photosynthetic pigment common in some algae).
I spend a bit of time reading up on the sailing terms I’ve been learning: I can now explain what all all of these things are:
- Clew
- Clewline
- Sheet
- Leech
- Leechline
- Buntline
- Yard
- Halyard
Tomorrow we’ll start exploring islands, but tonight we stay aboard: lots of people need to catch up on sleep.