" A Lady Trip" the A.R.C. Las Palmas to St Lucia Avoiding the recession in style

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 5 Dec 2009 12:27
DAY 12
 FRIDAY 4th December 2009
 
MILES  TO  FINISH    560
MILES TRAVELLED  2210
 
00.00   Still sailing along nicely, going further south than intended, but did so to keep the boat speed up, 
 
03.00  A coaster passed us travelling in the opposite direction
          A flying fish flew in the hatch and landed on the saloon floor, poor guy, dident make it back to the sea.
06.00 We overtook two sailing boats , Frence we suspect ,and not in the A.R.C.
 
07.00 we checked out the weather for the day and, Dermot hosed down the deck, while skipper typed the blog.
 
11.00  The crew decided to make bread in the microwave, what a laugh, I would think ther will not be another attempt on this gourmet bread making.
 
12.oo  Good progress,   Finish now,   508 miles
 
12.30 Mark caught a HUGE fish , but yet again the wire trace snapped  and off went the fish ,waving at us.
12.35 Mark caught a derado, a good sized fish , which was fillited straight away and onto the pan for lunch.
19.00 hrs    , Mark was on fire today, now he has caught a GARE fish, 1.5m long and looked like a big eel.
19.30  We decided to take down the KITE and check the halyard and guy. good job, we repaired the halyard felt the guy would survive another 24hrs,
          what a mistake,  anyway we put up the Kite again off we went, and we had a lamb dinner , prepared and cooked by John
 
23.00 Another ship passed on route to Baltimore , Maryland, U.S.A.
23.30  The port guy carried away and the mighty crew were up in a shot and effected the necessary repairs,
          With the wind blowing at over 25 knots and carrying between 2500 sq,feet and 3500 sq feet of sail, then there has to be casulties
and ware and tare. Lucky so far, its only ropes.
 
We checked our positions against all the other Oyster's and yachts in our class, and without exception , we made ground on them all,
 
Till tomorrow.
 
Stephen Hyde  Skipper