HOME WATERS ISLAND HOPPING
he forecast had mentioned fog patches, but the visibility we were sailing through was rather worse. Our companion yacht clung to us like a limpet, its white hull and sails waxing and waning in the pale swirling mist. Somewhere out there in the murk, rocks akin to dragon’s teeth were guarding the outlying borders of the Isles of Scilly, with swift tidal streams running between them capable of sweeping unwary vessels to their doom. My thoughts turned to the menaces facing mariners of old, who approached this perilous archipelago without the benefit of a recent fix; their dead-reckoning calculations would be made even less certain by the fast currents whipped up by the convergence of the Bristol and English Channels. Indeed, the worst disaster ever to befall the Isles of Scilly was that of the British Fleet led by Rear Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell in 1707, whose erroneous dead-reckoning position led to one of the greatest losses of life in maritime history. The ensuing catastrophe thrust the longitude problem into the forefront of public concern, resulting in the Longitude Act of 1714 and the innovation of Harrison’s Clock. Our own fleet, gladly, was not in the same boat; AIS gave us advance warning of approaching shipping and GPS supplied an exact position.
