Tuesday 15 September 2026
Hi everyone! Welcome back! Here we are aboard the Cruise Ship – Bolette – the flagship of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.
It’s Day 4 of our 10-day sail around the UK, and today we head for the Isles of Scilly. Buckle up! It’s a long one! 👍 😁
It’s all been great so far. The staff, the food and the facilities have been superb – the onboard wifi, not so much! (but that’s cruising for you!). So, apologies for the connection issues yesterday evening when it came to posting Monday’s adventure – it was patchy all day ☹️.
Missed a Post?
Day 1 (Saturday)
Day 2 (Sunday)
Day 3 (Monday)
Today’s Adventure
An early start this morning! 😵💫. I was up at 5.30am closely followed by Ann. It was then breakfast in the room, just after 7, before heading ashore.
Today, we have two island destinations planned: ‘St Mary’s’ and, this afternoon, Tresco, and ‘Tresco Abbey Gardens’.
Looks like we have OK weather for it too (just!)! 🤔
St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly
The largest of the Isles of Scilly, St. Mary’s is a peaceful gem off the coast of Cornwall, known for its warmth and beauty. The six square miles of island is a charming blend of picturesque beaches, rolling hills, and rugged coastal paths, perfect for peaceful walks and sea views, and the capital of Hugh Town has narrow streets lined with boutiques and cafés, ripe for browsing or sampling locally caught seafood.
After a ‘spirited’ twenty-minute sea journey, the ‘Seahorse’ landed all 53 of us, like the perfect Martini slightly shaken and stirred on St Mary’s – and not a used sick bag in sight! The beauty of the island was immediate, and right on cue out came the Sun. If you’re into nature, there is lots to enjoy – Sun, Sea and plenty of sand …and absolutely no sign of any seagulls!
We only had a few hours here and headed for the old Garrison, part of the Garrison Walls, that we’d read about a while ago. This required a steep walk, and I think we achieved our daily step count in the first 10 minutes! 😉
Sadly, the Garrison is now a Hotel, so not what we expected at all. We engaged reverse and descended down the now familiar sleep incline, and into the very picturesque town, grabbing a coffee along the way. Side note: The Scilly Isles are known to be expensive (as they have to import pretty much everything) but our two coffees only came to £7.50 👍
…and the view out to sea wasn’t bad either!
By 10.15, we were all ‘St Mary-ed out’ and headed back to the quayside.
We only had to wait for about 15 minutes for our water-taxi back and helpfully, Fred had laid on refreshments whilst we queued.
Twenty minutes later we ended our mini high sea adventure (and some of that sea was VERY high!) and we were safely back aboard the more stable Bolette! 😉 👍
A curious techno-fact that whilst I’ve been grappling with the lacklustre WiFi connection (2-10 Mbps) back on the Bolette, here we are on the small boat in the Atlantic and the data connection is unbelievable – see below…
Yes, that’s right… 630 down and almost 100 up. How? And maybe more importantly, Why? 🤔👍
Time for a quick bite before it was back to the Neptune Lounge awaiting the nod for our journey to Tresco (the Scilly’s second largest island).
Tresco Abbey Gardens
Tresco is a family-owned island at the heart of the Isles of Scilly. Featuring white-sandy beaches, subtropical gardens, car-free lanes and plenty of sea, it’s just two and a half miles long and a mile wide at its broadest point,
But wait there’s more! How about The Valhalla Figurehead Collection?
Wow! What a Garden! Even the blue sky returned for our visit! Well worth the journey and the price – we paid £65 each, including the boat there and back.
One of the special features of Tresco is that no vehicles are allowed on the island (it’s only around 2 miles x 1 mile, so even I could walk that!). The only way in or out is by boat, plane or helicopter! – and we’d seen all three today! 👍
We were soon on our way back, where the 15-minute return journey passed in a flash!
Back on board the Bolette, there was just time to spruce ourselves up and head for the Restaurant.
Evening Meal – Tuesday
Tomorrow…
Hold the front page! 😮 Weather conditions dictate that we’re NOT going to be sailing up the west coast of Ireland (The Skelligs, Inishnabro, Tearaght and the Cliffs of Moher). Instead, we’re sailing up the EAST Coast, heading for Belfast. Time for a Plan B… tomorrow! 🤔
Sleep well! 💤 🥱 🛌
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