A Lady trip

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 5 Oct 2009 16:26
Sunday 6th sept
Up reasonably early, Fixed up Pauls house before leaving Baltimore at around 11.00 hrs.
We got Mass in Goleen at midday, on our way to Crookhaven, In crook we had a soup and sandwich in the Crookhaven Inn, before
we cleaned up the house, cut the grass, weeded the flowerbeds, gwalked in at Ronan and Mary Kennedy's new house. lovely..
Departed for cork around 6pm and stopped for dinner in a lovely restaurant in clonakilty,
Bed about 11pm.
 
 
 
Monday 7th Sept.
04.00 up early and departed for the airport to meet Johnny and Dave,as we were off to Belgium for some meetings, Could you credit this, Johnny brought his driving
 licence instead of his passport, so could not travel.. Not to worry, he went to school in Malla.
Things just got bloody worse  from there on, When Dave and Stephen got to Shippol Airport, yeah yeah, a bloody train driver lightning strike,( they must have
lived in Cork for a while)... Anyway this ment we were not going to make almost all our meetings, so having completed what we could do, returned to Cork
a day early.  Up the unions.
 
 
 
Tuesday 8th
08.00 up and at it, off to the office to meet Terry O ' Sullivan for a coffee to discuss the Medeira trip, then we had Dave O'Reilly for the rest of the day
 to look over the state of the nation.
Later on, Stephen Aileen and Sarah went to the Indian Restaurant in Douglas before retiring to early bed.
 
 
Wed 9th Sept.
Up early, a little gardening before going to the office to meet Dave o'Rielly again for more talking. We  went to the " Farm Gate " restaurant for lunch, which was followed by a couple of meetings  in town....
later on Stephen went to crosshaven to visit Gladys (the mother) as she lives with the brother Rom, timing is everything, on arrival ,Rom was in the middle of making
dinner, so we all got royally fed , including the dogs,
Bed early
 
 
Thursday 10th Sept.
Up early and off to fota golf club for a game with Roddy Hogan Myself and Brian Archer,  It was a smashing day and believe it or not, Roddy took
all the money, He was playing way above his normal standard and had us stunned. He has to be getting lessons, Bet that P.J. had something to do with that.
Well done Roddy, but remember the money is only a loan untill 1212 A.D.
After lunch , I had to go to dr. Gene Murphy for my shots ( injections) for the trip, she did a good job.
We had dinner with Sarah and Paul before going to bed....
 
 
Friday 11th Sept.
04.00 up early again for the airport, where we met Terry and Collette O' Sullivan and Helen,  After an uneventfull flight we landed at Faro Airport in Portugal
and got a taxi to Lagos , where " A Lady " was berthted.  It was great to be back in the heat again.
Still problems with the aft toilet now and the blinking Sea Fresh desalinator, ( a thing for making fresh water out of salt, or sea water )
 Despite all new parts being bought , paid for and sent out to lagos and installed by Sopromar boatyard, we were still only getting 50% of what the thing is supposed
to do, All done on the recommendations of " sea fresh " company U.K.
We all went for a scottish steak that night,
Terry and Collette kept going into the long hours , after the rest of us had collapsed into our bunks, But then ,they are only children in comparison to the rest of us.
 
lots and lots of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
 
Saturday 12th
up early enough, we went to sea just to prove the " Sea Fresh " plant was not working properly,
We checked over the whole boat , making sure that all requests were carried out , and generally, they were, . In fact the boat looked Beautifull ,having been polished
( except they polished off the R.C.Y.C. flag on the transome) dumbells...   Anyway we were leaving for Madeira tomorrow, come hell or highwater....
When we got the boat back to her proper berth, we went across the road to the local supermarket for provisions . Again it has to be said, the cost
of food anywhere down here ( and especially places like the Azores and Spain ) is so.so. much less than Ireland, ........... but more than that, Their fruit and
veg are so feckin fresh in comparrison to ours.  Where are we going wrong ?????
We went to the Indian restaurant that night. everyone excited about tomorrows trip.
early bunks.....ZZZZZZZZZZ
 
 
Sunday 13th
Up early, another beautifull day and looks like a nice N.N.W. breeze,
09.00 hrs ,we slipped off the marina, having settled up the accounts, ( not a cheep marina )
outside as we headed southwest, we were surrounded with hundreds of dolfins, they were very interested in talking to Terry. maybe they wanted a smoke
or just a chat about " Toty Joe " or Collette's " Toty Joe " special.
 
We wre flaking along, doing 8 / 9 knots.. this is what sailing is all about (well supposed to be ) The Skipper cooked roast chicken , roast potatoes, creamed spuds
veg etc for dinner , we skipped the alchacol for a change.......
we took turns in the watches, but no one was rushing to the bunk as it was a beautifull night..
 
Monday 14th .
Aileens birthday started with another beautifull day, mind, poor old Helen was not feeling well at all, so we had to look after her while she got used to  mmmm
getting sick, poor thing, 
The 3 stages of seasickness.........FIRST................   oh !  I am going to get sick.
                                                   SECOND  ..........  oh oh oh  !  I am going to die..
                                                   THIRD  ...............  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,   !  I am not going to die....
09.00 hrs we had sailed with no engine 185 miles
 
the wind was blowing about 25 / 28 knots, and we were flying along on a close fetch with 2 reef's in the main and one in the yankee plus the staysail.
Fantastic sailing.
again took turns with the night watch,
poor Collette gave up the fags for 3 days as going aft for a smoke was not an option..
The stars, the milkey way, the plough, the seven sisters, were twinkiling there all night, the sae's were big enough but on a good angle to the boat
so we never slowed down, We saw very little shipping traffic.
 
 
Tuesday 15th September
09.00 hrs   In 48 hours we had sailed 420 nautical miles. great going. well we thought so anyway...
Helen was feeling much , much , better,
We saw land at about 12.00 hrs, its always great to see land  after a long journey .. the whole trip was about 480 miles.
We arrived in Ponto Santo 16.30 hrs,  among a bit of confusion over which island was which , well done Terry,
 
We anchored off the lovely beech near the harbour entrance,
We lowered the rib and went ashore to stretch the legs,
we met Fergus Quinlan and kate while having a beer in the local,
 
NOW we ate on board and Collette cooked the , now famous TOTIE JOE  special, a delicious creamey chicken dish with rice. lots of wine and too
many fags..  cough, cough, cough.
 Off to an earley bunk.............................zzzzzzzzzzzzzz