Bessie Ellen

5 September 2018

When we left Ballycastle Bay (on September 2nd) we saw the ‘Bessie Ellen‘. This lovely ship is a wooden Ketch from 1904, and she was heading in the same direction. So, we altered our course a little bit to sail with her. It was a lovely sail, but clearly we sailed a bit faster and we lost her sight.
There was a constant northerly wind. Quite fastly we sailed towards Land’s End, where we will go around the corner to Falmouth. But due to the high speed we would arrive way too soon. That was not our plan!
As always, at the start of the trip, we asked the guestcrew what they would like to see and do during the trip. Several people said they would love to go to the Isles of Scilly. So, after negotiations with the pilots we decided to go there. Because of our speed, we would be too early at the spot where the pilot would come on board. So, we took down some sail and we took it easy. And what do we see on the AIS: the ‘Bessie Ellen’ is sailing close to us again. Through the VHF we had contact with each other and now we are both at anchor behind St Mary’s at the Scilly Islands!