Fw: A lady trip

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 16 Aug 2009 09:23
 
----- Original Message -----
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