After the travel problems encountered by hundred this Saturday, inconveniences have been compounded by thick fog in The Islands preventing nearly all flying.

The Islands were blanketed in fog from the early hours, right through to the evening, despite infuriatingly clear weather on mainland airports. The difficulties were not eased by BBC Radio Cornwall?s early broadcasts, which reported on no travel difficulties without even contacting either aircraft operator.

The last three days have begun with fog in the Islands and the Scillonian is set to make another late night arrival this Monday after a whole day without flying. The Scillonian is not due to leave Penzance until at least 8:00PM in the evening, in which case, she would not dock in St. Mary?s until 10:30PM, off-island passengers not arriving at their final destination until about 11:30PM.

The second sailing will complete a gruelling day for the crew of the Scillonian which first sailed from Penzance at 9:15AM (also carried all the Islands post, diverted from the helicopter). The skipper of the Scillonian is expected to request that the Ship remain alongside St. Mary?s Quay tonight rather than make a post-midnight trip back to Penzance.

One of Brintel?s two helicopters has broken down on one of the busiest traveling days of the year, following the break-up of mainland schools.

One helicopter is operational, carrying half of the travellers from the mainland.

A special sailing of Scillonian III has been chartered for the rest of the travellers.

On Saturdays, Scillonian III makes a brief visit to the Islands after lunchtime. The newspapers will arrive on this sailing. The boat will then have to return to Penzance to collect the stranded helicopter travellers.

A diver suffering from the bends had to be rescued from St. Mary’ this weekend by a Royal Navy SAR Helicopter.

The Seaking helicopter from HMS Seahawk (or Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose) in Cornwall was scrambled to Deep Point, St. Mary’ to assist in the recovery of a casualty. It is thought that the diver was initially taken to Treliske hospital in Truro.

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These pictures were taken from the Eastern Isles at 5:50 on Sunday afternoon. Initial reports were sketchy at best and the it is still not clear how the inncident happened or who the casualty was.

St Mary?s Airport was slient today as no flights took off or landed due to today?s national industrial action.

Tresco?s new heliport (a few yards down the lane from where it was) saw one of the busiest days it will ever face as around 17 helicopter flights went in and out. This was diverted air traffic, most of which should have arrived at St Mary?s.

Scillonian III had 100 more passengers than at other times this week, most of whom should have travelled by air traffic. 346 passengers sailed today, over 200 of whom where daytrippers. The boat has carried about 250 travellers on weekdays earlier this week.

Due to the helicopters flying to Tresco the post, normally carried on the helicopters to St Mary?s for sorting, arrived late around the Islands, but was not cancelled.

The Hostel, in which the Five Islands? School?s secondary school students board, was closed for the night. Students had to travel back to the off-islands to sleep the night, returning the next morning for school.

Some council services avoided the strike, defiantly keeping on working.

The national Councils strike was in order to gain a better pay rise than that offered, 6% instead of 3%.

The athletic and the not so athletic joined forces on St. Agnes today in order to raise money for the inaugural Sports Relief national charity event.

Around 60 Islanders and visitors alike rallied on the meadow on St. Agnes at 11AM, in order to enjoy a good humoured and enjoyable Rounders match between four teams, there was also a considerable gathering of spectators which was impressive considering the murky weather conditions. Nicki Page and Jo Legg organised the event and were extremely pleased with the turnout.

Players ranged from the very young to the, more mature athlete shall we say, and money was raised by way of a ‘pay to play’ initiative as well as a raffle and cake stall. The raffle was extended into the later cricket match as well.

Two initial matches were played followed by the ‘third place play-off’ and a Final. The event once again re-iterated the way that sports can bring communities and all ages together, a point particularly significant in such an isolated area. The final tally was ?364.60p, which will be sent to the central fund and added to other donations including the ?10M raised by the Telethon on Saturday night.

On Wednesday 17th of July, there will be no flights to or from St Mary?s Airport as many of the staff, including safety and fire staff, employed by the Council, are to take strike action. The aim of the national strike is to get a 6% pay rise for Council workers.

St Mary?s airport is run by the Isles of Scilly Council and, as many baggage handlers double up as airport firemen, there was no option but to close down the airport for the day due to safety worries.

Jack Dromey, national organiser of the TGWU, said to BBC News that council workers had ‘had enough’, adding: “They care but are not cared for by their employers.”

He added that he was “disappointment” that the Prime Minister had not offered a word of support to low paid public sector workers.

All helicopter flights will be diverted to Tresco, where the staff are paid by landowner Robert Dorien Smith. It is thought that many flights originally scheduled to land on St. Marys will land on Tresco and visitors will be transported to their destination by boat.

As the airport runway is he only space on the Islands capable of allowing passenger carrying fixed wing aircraft to land, Skybus will be unable to land in the Islands, so it will not be flying. It has not yet been decided whether an extra sailing will be needed from the Scillonian III in order to cope with passengers on cancelled Skybus flights.

Relatively few other Island services will be disrupted by this industrial action to the same degree as the disruption which the airport will face. This is the first Council workers strike since the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in 1979.

Official links:
a href=”/out.php?url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_2096000/2096253.stm” target=”_blank”BBC News/a: ?Council workers warned over strike?

A motor boat was left high and dry alongside St. Agnes Quay on Thursday evening as its owner seemingly miscalculated his allowances for tides.

As the picture shows, this vessel was left aground as the tide receded alongside St. Agnes Quay. It was difficult to calculate what was worse for the owner, the damage sustained to his boat and engine or the embarrassment caused by several boatloads of onlookers, including two cricket teams, gloating from the nearby Turks Head.

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“subinfo”A close up of the prop on the boats? engine shows damage to the vertical fin./span

The boat dried out at about 8:00 PM which allowed an initial inspection of damages, which seemed to include damage to the skeg section of the 50hp Yamaha Autolube outboard, which had been left down. The tide is not thought to be in to a sufficient level until around 5:00 AM, if not later, well after closing time at the Turks!

A new wicket has been laid on the Cricket ground on St. Marys recently, although bad weather cut short the ‘inaugural match’ which had been organised between St. Marys and an ‘Islands All star IV’.

The Cricket pitch on St. Marys is on the Garrison, next to the main campsite. The previous wicket had been a rubber compound, which was becoming overgrown with weeds and consequentially dangerous to play on due to unpredictable bounce.

The new surface has been likened to that of the St. Martins wicket with a kind of carpet cover. The first match on the new surface had to be abandoned after just six overs due to the weather, but the teams commented that the new wicket was certainly safer and seemed to produce a much better playing surface.

IThe photo is a file photo of the Cricket pitch on Tresco during a recent off-Island Triangle tournament./I

William Shakespeare?s famous play ?As You Like It? as performed by Touchstone will be coming to the Islands in August this year.

They will be performing the play in the Chaplaincy Gardens, St Mary?s on 16 August and Tresco Abbey Gardens on 17 August before heading off to Pendennis Castle the next day. Let?s hope they enjoy their fleeting visit!

Official links:
a href=”http://www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk/performance/shakespeare%20productions.html” target=”_blank”Touchstone/a Shakespeare in Performance

First Great Western and Brintel (Helicopters) have announced a promotion allowing First Class travel return from London Paddington, and return flight on the helicopters for ?190.

Otherwise, British International standard returns are now ?100, and trains? iStandard/i Open iSingle/i in from London to Penzance is ?75.50.

There are also deals for stations on the way.

Official links:
a href=”http://www.great-western-trains.co.uk/fares/isles_of_scilly.html” target=”_blank”First Great Western/a Isles of Scilly Promotion