Fw: A lady trip
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 16 Aug 2009 09:23
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----- Original Message -----
From: ALady (S.Hyde)
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 7:07 PM
Subject: A lady trip Wednesday 5th Aug
Crew :- Stephen, Aileen, Sarah, and
Arnaud.
another beautifull day , on the beautifull A lady,
in beautifull mid atlantic. a light westerly breeze and flat sea made conditions
perfect.
we had to stop again ,midday, while Stephen and
Sarah went swimming.
the rest of the day was spent lounging
on the deck, soaking up every ray of sunshine, of course some got scalded, and
went turkey red,
no one would listen to the mammy.
wed. night passed off without incedent, except the
setting sun looked perfectly sick.
a couple of hours here and there in the super bunk,
with broken zzzzzzzzz zz
zzzzzzzz.....
Thursday 6th aug
Crew :- Stephen, Aileen , Sarah, and
Arnaud.
Red sky in the morning, is the sailor's
warning,, well that's what daddy used to say. breckfast consisted of
just little bits , the wind had now gone
N.E. and starting to build. by lunch time, we
were sailing with full sails flying and travelling along at 9knts. As they
say " we were pissing along and loving it" but, and there's always a
feckin BUT, by late afternoon the temperature was going steadily downhill, while
the wind and waves were going steadily
uphill, by 21.oo hrs we had one reef in the
mainsail and had put on much warmer clothes.
because things were hotting up, we hardly ate a
thing all day, and by 23.00 hrs we were in full all weather gear ,just to keep
warm..by this stage we had two reef's in the yankee, and the wind was backing to
the north, which suited us very niclely as we were heading east.
we now had less than 90 miles to " cabo de sao
vicente ", the nearest point of land, and then another 20 miles to Lagos. ( on
the Algarve )
We eventually had to furl up the "yankee" fully,put
a reef in the staysail and 2 reef's in the main, and we were still making
8.5knts
the sea state was rough, thats when there are
lots of white horse's, except we had lots of white elephants as well, and the
odd one found its way into the cockpit. the shaggers.
We then had a 2 hour chat about crossing the
shipping lanes , which were comming up shortly, poor Sarah was very worried, (
despite all our reasurances ) that we would not be run down by a drunken
old supertanker or such.
the first lane was about 40 miles off the coast and
was south bound. we all stayed up, and despite the fact that we could see
12/14 miles on the radar,
poor Sarah was beside herself, I felt that
Sarah could see "davy jones" waiving at her, and calling her to his liquid
house, we even lit up the boat like a christmas tree to make sure we were
seen by the whole south atlantic.
(it reminded me of my friend Terry ,the night
we sailed along the south coast off dungarvan and helvic head , he was also
having panic attacks about being close to land, even though we were 5 miles
off)
After a few close encounters, and wet up to our
arse's. we made it safe and sound, much to Sarah's delight and surprise,
We arrieved into Lagos around 14.00 hrs. registered at the marina office, and
went to our designated berth. A very impressive marina, well laid out and well
run, Arnaud and Stephen tidied up the boat , while the girls went up
town.
This was now friday afternoon, and later we all
went ashore and had an excellent meal. boy! did we sleep when we got back to the
boat.zzzzzzzzzzzz
Saturday 8th Aug
Crew :- Stephen, Aileen, Sarah, and Arnaud
No one moved till about 10.00 ,delighted with the
rest. After breckfast Arnaud and Stephen did some boat work, after lunch Arnaud
went shopping for
food, as he was doing the dinner on board that
night, the girls went to the beach, to top up their super
tan's
that night we were joined by the owner and crew of
" pure magic" Peter, Joe, Mike,and Trish.
we had a great night, and of course ,too much
drink. Arnaud cooked a great french chicken dish and served it with
rice,
all, in all , a lovely relaxing day , and
suitably wined up we all retired to the bunks at approx 00.30
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sunday 9th Aug
Crew :- Stephen, Aileen,Sarah and
Arnaud.
06.00 Aileen, Sarah and Arnaud got up. Sarah
and Arnaud had organised a taxi to take them to Faro airport, On arrival , Sarah
discovered her ticket had been cancelled. after much agony, she managed to
purchase a new one, and was lucky there was a seat available.
Stephen dragged Aileen to Mass at 9.45 ,
Like the churches in the azores, the guilding and alters were
magnificant and beautifull places to visit.,
after mass went for for coffee on the way back to
the boat, we bumped into the "pure magic" gang and they looked as bad as they
felt.
we were not long on the boat, when we had a visit
from Brendan and Brenda Cahill, from limerick, Brendan is originally from
Valentia Island and still has a holiday house there, Their boat is called
"Wizard" and is kept on the algarve generally, and they make good use of her
every year.
The heat today was killing, We had the a/c on all
day in an effort to stay cool and sane. Dinner was a lovely light salad prepared
by himsefl. It included
some of the ham we cooked during the week, plus
avacado, beetroot, celery, eggs, luttice, prawns, small cold potatoes,
cheese,etc.. yum yum yum
got to the superbunk early for a
change.........zzzzzzzzzz zzzzz
Comment :-- There were three other
Oyster's close by, two 56's and one new 54, but the only one being photographed
was," A lady"
Lots of people gathered at the railings and
admired her and asked all about her, ITS THE NAVY COLOUR, I
explained, pointing out the other Oysters,
which they had not noticed untill we pointed them
out. ( and to think Fat's nearly had a heart attack when we said we wanted the
navy)
good old Donald, You convinced us to buy a
beautifull lady,, thanks a million, and despite your reservations about the
colour, she is
continously admired.. xx
Monday 10th Aug
Crew :-- Stephen and
Aileen
lazy start about 08.00 hrs S.H. went to
"sopromar" boat yard to meet Hugo, the main man, and discuss all the little
things that needed sorting,
plus getting the engine serviced, meanwhile Aileen
went up town, as women do.
after lunch s.h. went through the things that need
to be sorted with the rigger and boatyard guys.
That evening as S,H, was about to have a nap, a
head came through the hatch and asked for permission to look over the boat, John
Mc Cann, from white rock in Strangford lough N.I. indicated he would love
an Oyster 56 or 62 and to sail it in the 2010 arc rally.
Of course we had a beer while we woffeled on for
ages, we examined the boat, from head to toe, and after all that, we went off to
the nearest
chineese for super, economical ,
meal....
John's neighbour for a long time, was John Mc
William's. cripes could you credit that !
John had a nasty experience in his janneau 54
crossing the bay of biscay last year, hence the desire for an
Oyster.
Following a few night caps, we went off to
the super bunk. zzzzzzzzzz
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