Sailing around the World (presently at Sea )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 9 Oct 2010 06:48
FRIDAY  8th OCTOBER  2010      ( Day  12  at Sea )
 
 Total distance from the Coci's Islands to Mauritius.....................................2,313 miles
 Distance remaninig to Mauritius .................................................................222 miles
 Weather..................................................................................................Blue skies, blue sea's ,
 Distance travelled in the last 24 hrs, ...........................................................197 miles
 
We had a great night at Sea, beautifull sailing conditions with a steady 18  /  20 knot breeze from the ESE pushing
us along with the Blue spinniker flying. ( The mighty Bag of Fear ). we avereged 8.5 knots for the night.
We did have an adverse current for a long period during the night, but on the other hand we saw no traffic or trawlers that required
evasive action.
 
09.00hrs  Radio Call :-  Today , " Drammer" were duty net controllers,  Hans & Emi are sailing their boat on their own and are from the Netherlands,
There are at least 4 boats on this trip that are being sailed by just husband and wife,  Well done to them, This sort of trip not only
needs a lot of courage, but a great belief in your own ability..
 
Most of the day was spent pottering around the boat, keeping in touch with other boats, emails, and the BLOG.
As I said before, this blog is like having a pet , a dog, a rabbit, a parrott, or whatever, but BUT, whatever, it has to be fed every day.
 
Lunch,  actually a snack :  we sat there in the cockpit in glorious weather and stuffed our faces with crackers and cheese, no alcohol as
we are still at sea...  Actually its a bummer not having wine with crackers and cheese,  As " Harry Fitzgerald "  one of our lecturers
at college used to say to us in situations like that, " Its like having a living room without a fire, or a bed without a woman, "
 
17.00hrs  We lowered the spinniker as the wind had died down and the " Bag of fear " was swinging from side to side with the swell
at the time, and in danger of wrapping itself around the forestay once more. We had enough of that a few nights to last us for the rest of the trip.
We then set up a goosewing and sailed on,
 
18.00hrs, Distance to destination....................................158miles
We will arrieve in Mauritius tomorrow,    perhaps around lunch time ,  at least one day ahead of our ETA, thanks to the gales we had on the way.  
 
Dinner consisted of :- Roast stuffed chicken, chicken rolls in puff pastry, and fried rice, by Aileen
We listened to Tzaganie on the 6 pm radio and they were having roast beef,  God bless England for their roast beef.
We had now a very strong current sweeping us south, the wind was getting very light , so we reved up the iron mainsail ( engine )
and motor sailed.
 
It was a magnificant evening, and the sun was a huge ball of fire going down over the horizon,  Actually, we have often heard other crews talking
about the green flash as the sun dissapeard below the horizon, but as far as we could make out, no one ever saw the thing,
Well we did last night, just an instant flash, but skipper thinks it was caused by the suns rays catching the tops of waves in between us and the sun,
but it was quite significant,  we have looked out for this over the last 24,000 miles , ande never yet saw it untill tonight, and may never see it again.
 
Darkness fell and the stars were just splendid,yet again, a crystal clear night.
 
Watches :-             21.00hrs  /  00.00 hrs....................................... Terry
                              00.oohrs  //03.00hrs..........................................Skipper
                              03.00hrs  /  06.00hrs.........................................Neil
                              06.00hrs  /  08.00hrs.........................................Aileen
 
After 12 days at sea, we are nearly there , ( do you remember the kids in the car saying " are we there yet, are we there yet ! ")
so we are all excited at the thought of walking ashore in Mauritius tomorrow.,
 
thats it for now,
 
Signed :-   Stephen Hyde    ( skipper )