" A Lady " sailing the A.R C. and avoiding the recession and the rain

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 22 Nov 2009 21:14
SUNDAY 22nd November  2009
 
D.DAY.
Up early, We read all the emails and had weather reports from all sorts of sources, including good old Fats, ( well done donal, we have decided to follow your advice and go south of the rum line)
Well , by 11am we had the rib all packed up and on board with its cover on.
We checked all our equipment and at 11.30 we slipped our lines and went out through the official gate ( photograph dept. ) and headed for the start area..
Ohhh, what a beautifull sunny warm day and a light northeasterly breeze. SUN CREAM'S ON. along with all the other navigational equipment.
The whole place was at fever pitch. and a complete sea of sails, We gently motered around waiting for the start and watched a few " spanners " collide
and cause a few retirals, ( could you imagine one poor sailor was rammed by a local plonker and had to retire.)
BOOM there goes the gun, and were off. 13.00 hrs
We put up our new "parasailor" kite and by 16.00 hrs , we were flaking along at 9knots in 18 knts of breeze. ( east,north east)
Later , the wind got up to 25 knots and we were touching 11/12 knots at times, the great thing about this sail is its stability.
By 21.oo hrs we had covered 70 miles, averaging almost 9 knots
This is where we are now, and the new moon looks great with all the stars dancing in the sky, The " milky way" the "seven sisters" and all the others.
We just had "belly pork" and roast spud's for dinner as we fly along towards the Carribean
We will try sending a photo of the new sail.
No bed, no wine, no g&t's,