A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the World, ( presently at sea, between the Galapagos and the Marquesses Islands)

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 18 Mar 2010 17:46
Total distance of this leg .................3000miles
06..hrs Distance to go................... 1104 miles
Position...........................................97 Deg 56 min South
120 Deg 30 min West
Distance travelled in last 24 hrs.........194 miles
Average speed over last 24hrs...........8.08 knots
Wind..............................................ESE 24 / 28 knots

WEDNESDAY 17th March St Patricks Day

Uneventfull night, Cloudy and occasional rain,
05.00hrs Dawn begins to break, Sunrise will be much later,
Aileen has been on watch since 02.00hrs, she's knackered, and skipper
takes over the
watch.
Only 42 flying fish today., smelly ones at that, Whwat was originally a
novelty is
now becoming a nuisence.

10.00hrs Radio time ( 12.00 Galapagos time 18.00 UTC grenwich
meantime )
We have already sent our position by email to " Eowyn"
We recieve all the positions of the other yachts, and we are still well up
there.
We wished everyone on the trip a happy " Paddys Day "

We cleaned up the decks and got rid of the fish,
Having coffee, we got into a discussion about some of the participants
falling
overboard and how lucky they were to survive the experience,
This reminded the skipper of the time his " Old Man" ( John Hyde ) fell
overboard
while sailing towards the Old Head of Kinsale
on " Teddy Pope's" yacht called SUSETTE. They were off cruising down
west and
under spinniker at the time.
Of course he couldent swim a stroke ( by the way the skipper was about 6
at the
time) and after a while let go the rope he was hanging onto.
The wife explained that it took about 30 minutes to retrieve the spinniker
, take
down the sails , start the engine and turn around .

There is no sign of the " Old Man" anywhere, Nothing, Oh Cripes and he
cant swim,
Meanwhile , under the surface , John is admiring the sun shining down
through the
waves ( he told the Skip. this himself)
and knowing that it was just a matter of time before he drowned, He said
at this
stage he was semi uncontious, but very relaxed,
Then he thought " Oh My God ! I have a young family and what will
happen to them.
thats what he said,
( More like " I have a beautifull young Wife, and family, so what gobshit
will take
them over)
Anyway whatever the reason, He started to pray like he never prayed
before, thats
what he said, and whatsmore
He promised God, that if he ( god ) saved the Old Man, then he would go to
Mass and
Holy Communion every day for the rest of his life,
Thats a big Promise for any one to make,

Meanwhile back on board the " Susette" theres panic, no sign of John. They
motor
back towards where they think he fell over,
but NO sign, In the end Teddy stops the boat, not knowing what to do next,
Suddenly Gladys, ( the wife) looks over the side of the boat , and Lo and
Behold,
there he is , right under the side of " Susette"
They haul him out , pump him out and after a day relaxing in the hospital in
Kinsale, He was grand again.

But Hey ! The Promise, Well that man never missed daily Mass or Communion
to the
day he died at the age of 80 years.
Nice storey that ended well,

Back to our uneventfull dull Pacific crossing by comparrison, However its a
beautifull day now and we are sailing merrily along.
The skipper read some more of the I.C.C. annual, an excellent magazine
with some
great stories,


18.00hrs Fats prepares to do the dinner,
Tonight it consists of chicken, cooked with veg in a pot with a bottle of
wine, (
good way of hiding how much we drink)
also included was mashes potatoes, and too many other things to mention,
but it was
yummy.

Oh , get a laugh on this,
Rally Control ( the organisers of this trip ) sent us an email and
suggested we cook
a " sheppards pie" for paddys day,
They even included a reciepe for the dish, which included " Beef"
The Skipper thanked them very much, but pointed out that " Shepperds"
looked after
Sheep, and not cattle,
and that the reciepe was for a cottage pie nad not Shepperds Pie ( which
of course
you all know is made with lamb or mutton)

Any way , We think they were trying to take the piss out of the Irish,
because of
Paddys Day,
Long live Paddy

Tonights watch :- Aileen .................... 21.00 / 01.00hrs
Fats,........................01,00hrs /
05.00hrs
Skipper....................05.00hrs /
09.00hrs


Thats it for today,

Signed:- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )