Forget the Bermuda Triangle, with 3 maritime incidents off St. Agnes in the past week, the area is fast becoming known as the ‘Scilly rectangle’. The first of the three incidents occurred early in the week when the diving vessel (ex - naval auxiliary) ‘Mentor? dragged her anchor whilst moored in Per Conger. The wind was luckily blowing in a Northerly direction and the boat floated out of the harbour, miraculously missing ‘The Cow? and ‘The Brow’. At the time, all the divers and crew were in the Turks Head Pub, on shore and it was not until a visitor notified bar staff that the Mentor had apparently disappeared. After that there was a frenzied rush to get to the tender and the boat was regained and brought back into harbour, presumably using two anchors this time.
The second incident happened in the same bay a day later when the wind had shifted into a southerly direction. A yacht dragged her anchors early in the morning and just as the crew were about to leave to move to another bay, they felt her keel rubbing on the sandy seabed. “I looked out of the door,” said a crewmember “and all I could see was granite. The crew were incredibly lucky, as if the wind was in a slightly different direction they could have found themselves on Gugh shore or St. Agnes Shore. The crew then took the boat around to Cove where she lay on secure moorings for the next few days.
The third and most serious incident happened on Friday the 20th when, as a Yacht let the Cove, she caught a rope from some crab pots around her propeller. The strong wind then pushed her onto a prominent rock on the southern end of Gugh, the Hakestone. She was being pressed hard against this rock for about 3/4 of an hour. It is probable that they attempted to release the rope but when it wouldn’t shift, the Lifeboat was called. The Lifeboat left St. Marys at about 11:30 and raced around to the cove were she set about attaching a line and towing the yacht clear. Damage will not be fully assessed until the yacht dries out at low tide.
This bout of incidents is totally unprecedented, so many in such a short space of time in such a tiny area. The geographical proximity, out of interest, was about 350m by 1km.