" A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the World and avoiding the Mess at home ( presently sailing between Marquises and Tuamotu's)

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 11 Apr 2010 02:14
SATURDAY 10th APRIL  2010       Today, Munster v Northampton,.........In Thomond Park . Limerick.
 
The night at Sea, Very cloudy and lots of showers. some very heavy.
Watches, 21.00  /  01.00  Donal
               01.00  /  05.00  Stephen
               05.00  /  09.00  Aileen
 
Looking at the radar and watching all the clouds building and tracking them to see if they are going to piddle down on
us is facinating,  Its like looking down on top of the world with all the yellow patches moving slowly across the screen.
Then there is ,or is not a mad rush to shut all the hatches and windows, depending.
 
07.30 hrs ( our time locally,  11 hours behind Ireland )  We get at half time that Munster are trailing Northampton ,  13  /  16.  Ohhhh Noooo
08.30hrs  ( our time )     ............................................We get a call to say that Munster defeated Northampton  ,   33  /  19  Ohhhh  thats better,
 
The wind begins to build and the sun pushes all those nasty clouds off to some other planet, and all in all, things are looking up big time.
We have only 150 miles to go.
The wind is blowing 20 knots and we are sailing merrily along in relativly flat conditions at 8 knots...... No more engine for a while.
 
Its funny thing, when we were sailing last year ( July ) from Bayona in Spain to the Azores, A distance of 802 miles and 5 nights at sea,
Dermod Lovett said  " this is the first time I have been at sea for 5 consecutive nights "  and it turned out that the whole crew
were in the same boat. ( excepy Ann Lyons, who had completed a 10 night journey previously)  and we are all experienced sailors...
Now we think 3 nights or 5 nights at sea is a short hop .  How things can change..
 
The skipper is still reading the I C C annual . and was interested in Edi Keatings account of their cruise with Len and Mary Curtin
in the Ionian Islands last year, and how short hops are the thing,, The skipper was always of that mind too, nothing like going ashore
at night for a meal, or just a few pints, and sailing by day..  yes yes.
But cruising around the world is equally facinating, and the meals and pints ashore after 3, 5, 10 , or 16 days at sea taste
much, much better, Plus most of the Islands do not speak english either and sign language becomes a very important means of
communication.
 
One of the draw backs of the pacific, and most likely the only crib, is most harbours have swells , so anchoring in flat water ( so far )
is something we are not getting, not withstanding that, the next places are Atoll's , and should be calm,, great for swimming.
even if it is with sharks.
 
18.00hrs, Fat's is doing the dinner,  The skipper's Chicken pie and more veg and gravey,   yum, yum.
An early night and hpoefully have land fall tomorrow morning early.
It gets bright here around 04.45 hrs  and sudden dusk at 18.00hrs
 
Thats it for now,
 
signed:  Stephen Hyde   ( skipper )