" A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the World, ( presently in the Galapagos Islands)

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 2 Mar 2010 16:09
Friday 26th February 2010  ( start of the  5 day tour of the Galapagos )
 
07.00hrs Stephen climbed out of the bunk , and studied the charts of the Islands, made notes etc,
Shortly afterwards the rest of the crew appeared and we had breckfast before heading ashore for the start of our tour,
It was Pissing rain again, We were beginning to think that it never stops down here.
 
Fats and Kevin were leaving San Cristobel around now in " A  Lady" and Susanne from ralley control was also to travel with them,
However we would not be in touch with them for a few days, as phone reception would not be available in the areas we were travelling to !
 
10.30hrs, We were collected by bus and transferred to the small ship at the northern end of Santa Cruze ( some 40miles away)
We met Jannis and Branka from Slovinia, also on the World trip.
This brought back memories to the Skipper of a cruise S & A did in Croatia about 6 years ago on a Bavaria 42.
We ran into a mini tornado where the wind reached speeds of 55knots and Aileen was on her knees praying like never before
to her friend upstairs in an effort to avoid us meeting " Davy Jones " prematurly. and it must have worked, because in 30 minutes it was flat calm again.,
 
12.30 On board the ship, we were given a brief by " Roderigo " our guide for the next 5 days
and was followed by lunch .
Did you know that " El Nino" means " Baby Christ" and there was lots of discussions about El Ninos during this trip,
When the EL Nino gets going and the sea temperature in the pacific warms up, then the weather becomes totally unpridectable,
not only in the pacific, but around the world also.
They say here that one of these El Nino's Is due every 12 or 13 years, so , oh feck, there could be one this year !   ohhhhh noooo
let it be in two years from now,
We will have to Get Aileen working on that one.
 
Dave and Sue on " Voyaguer" were telling us that they did round the world with the " Blue Water Rally" 4 years ago, and got attacked by Pirates on
their way up to the Suiz Canal,, OHHHHH   thats scarrey stuff.
 
15.00hrs We landed ( wet landing, means we are transported ashore by dingy and have to paddle onto the beach)
We landed on Bachas Beach, a beautifull white sandy beach where Marine Turtles make their nests and lay their eggs, fab to see it all in real life.
We saw lots of " Blue footed Boobies"  , turtles, sealions, Flamingos, Marine Iguana's
The snortling was again amazing, just to drift along with all the fist, almost as if you were one of them, and they did not seem to mind.
The same on shore, you could stand within inches of any of the animals or birds and they would take no notice, in fact sometimes
you would think they were posing for the " Irish Examiner"
 
18.30hrs We had a briefing about tomorrows activities, and this was followed by Dinner.
We met Casey and Hidi from lake " Winnipasakka" in Newhampshire U.S.A. they are sailing on " Wild Tigris" a swan 76
" Casey " is friendly with Alan Crosbie from kinsale and has stayed in his house, How small can the world get ?
 
S & A have stayed in Lake Winnie pasakie a few years ago  when over in that part of the world with our son Paul and his wife " Christine"
I know I have the spelling of lake ****** wrong, but it sounds something like that..
 
23.30hrs we hit the bunks in what were tiny little cabins, Oh , Aileen got hte job of doling out the cabins to the 16 passingers on board,
All from the World ARC.
 
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
 
Signed :-   Stephen Hyde   ( skipper)