September has seen a steady decrease in yacht figures as we would expect at this time of year. This has allowed us to make a start on removing the buoys in anticipation of renewing the ground chain in this area over the next few weeks. We will be replacing around two kilometres of chain with help from Padstow Harbour’s vessel ‘Mannin’ and local divers ‘Scavenger Diving Services’. We anticipate the work will take approximately two weeks subject of course to fine weather and plenty of tea!

September also wraps up the cruise ship season for the year with visits from the ‘Windsurf’, the ‘Marco Polo’ and finally the ‘Seaborne Pride’. These bring this year’s total of visiting ships up to a respectable 32 between them landing a more than adequate 6970 passengers here at St Mary’s. Next year’s figures look promising with 35 already booked in during the summer months.

The St Mary’s lifeboat, a Severn Class, had two call outs this month both to recreational yachtsmen around the Islands and we had two yachts run aground here within the Harbour. With little or no damage disaster was averted in all cases but these types of incidents serve as a constant reminder as to what can go wrong. Help never seems too far away but the occasions must leave a lasting impression on the crews I’m sure.