Sailing around the World ( Departure day from Mauritius to Reunion Island )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 24 Oct 2010 04:33
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SATURDAY 23rd
OCTOBER 2010
Mauritius to Reunion Island
...................... 132miles
06.00hrs Aileen went to Mass, to pray for a
good passage,
07.00hrs, Skipper and Terry tackled the Lazarette
and reorganised the whole thing. this included the use of lots of shock
cord to keep everything in
place when sailing, particularly in rough
weather. This all took about 2 hours, and we were happy we did a good
job.
09.30 hrs We all toddled over to the outer
pier for the Blessing of the boats, This was most interesting in so far
that the Mian celebrent
was a catholic Priest ( an uncle of Philippe ) and
the ceremony included , Muslim, Hindu, chineese, Anglican, and a jewish
rabbi.
and each one got a short time for their own
speach . well controled by the priest.
Every one attended the ceremony and it was almost
entertaining,
Later, Philippe, Ingrid, and their daughter Alice
called to " A Lady" to wish us Bon Voyage...
Shortly after we left the dock and headed out the
harbour towards the starting area, there was a stiff breeze
blowing.
11.30 hrs We crossed the start line with all
the other boats , a full fleet with the exception of Kalliope who left 2
days ago.
The wind was stiff and blowing from the east.
We all headed out west before setting a course of
251 degrees T . and putting up the blue " bag of fear "
the wind eased off and for 10 miles we just had 10
/ 12 knots of wind,
Suddenly the wind did a 180 degree shift and we
found ourselves with the spinniker wrapped around the mast, ohh my god,
not again,......
all hands on deck and very quickly, we had the "bag
of fear" down on the deck and into its bag.As we were one of the lead boats, we
were surprised no one else noticed and they all suffered the same problem ,
Especially " Tucanon " who were fairly close to us at the time with their
Parasail flying.
30 minutes later, the wind settled down and filled
in from the south, 30 / 35 knots , so we had some great sailing with flat enough
sea's
as the day wore on, the wind went more into the
east and we finished up on a broad reach, scooting along at 9 to 10
knots,
We had " Wild Tigres " as company for much of the
trip and eventually she overtook " A Lady " when we were about 60 miles
from our destination.
However, " Wild Tigres " is 72 feet long, where as
" A Lady is a mere 56 feet .
We had Lasagne for dinner with green peas, easy to
prepare and cook , we all enjoyed the food and no alcohol again.
A full moon appeared above the horizon in the east
and lit up the whole sea like daylight , and remained with us for the
night.
It was a beautifull night for sailing and we all
enjoyed the bright scene and twinkling stars in the sky
above.
00.00hrs, Reunion Island appeared on the
horizon, all lit up like a christmas tree, and we were still flaking along
merrily.
We could see a few other yachts around us , and we
were able to identify most of them,
As we got closer to the Island, it was obvious that
it was a steep Island and soon we could see clearly the cliffs, the street
lights, and all the residential lights climbing up the hills, a great
sight and always impresses the Skipper. Night landfalls are a truely great
sight........well the ones that are lit up ;
It reminds Skipper of passing Cobh in the boat at
night .....
03.00hrs. we passed along the northern shore, and
could see all the late night traffic, and plenty of it.
The wind dropped off completly when we were just a
few miles from the finish, so we just drifted across the line at 05.15 hrs right
behind " Wild Tigres"
Grand Filou and Crazy Horse had also finished ahead
of us, but thats fine, they are faster boats,
We entered the main harbour and were met by Paul
and Susanna , who directed us to our berth alongside the quay wall,
We then connected to the shore power and washed the
ship down before having a hearty breakfast on board.
Thats all for today.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( skipper
)
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