"A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the world
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 25 May 2010 19:01
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MONDAY 24th MAY
2010 ( Presently in Rarotonga, The Cook Islands,
South Pacific.)
07.00 Cloudy Morning with lots of Cocks
crowing in the background.
We took some photo's of the damaged toe rail and
paintwork on the starboard side caused by the French men in Raiatae
as they left the dock on their way to the start of
the practice race..
Laurent needs the photo's for the Insurance co. so
we emailed them to him.
Laurent, our yacht agent in Tahiti, was terrific,
he really looked after us and the boat and seemed available at all times
,
nights, weekends, holidays, etc,,
excellent
On the other hand, Arnaud in NautiSport was the
exact opposite, He actually went on his annual leave for the couple of weeks
that the
World ARC fleet were in town, Now for a man in the
boat buisness to go on holidays when the biggest biannual show comes to
town
says something about his interest in buisness, The
World ARC fleet specifically, and the overseas impression of Tahiti as a
place to do boat buisness.
None the less, We really enjoyed the French
Polyneesian Islands, from the Marquisses to the Tuamotu 's to the Society
Islands.
All wonderfull places, despite the few hiccups here
and there. but thats boats and sailing.
09.00hrs We went to the harbour office and
did all the paperwork . $30 NZ for A Lady per day to stay in the harbour.
( $2 NZ = 1 Euro )
Shortly after, we had a visit from the Depts of
Agriculture, Customs, and Imigration, we filled in all the necessary
documents
and used the Skippers " R.I.A.I. membership stamp"
to stamp the documents,, They loved that, for them, it really looked official
and
very important..
When we were finished with the Beaurocrats, we had
a full cooked breakfast in a local cafe for the equivalent of 5
euros,
great value, and no smells in the Galley......
QED
12.00hrs, We all ( the 3 musketeers )
motored to the Police Station to get our annual driving licences for the
scooters ( $10 NZ each )
these licence's were real jazzy little plastic
cards , and included our mug shots..except we should have gone to the
flippin
hairdressor first,,,
When we had our bits of plastic, we all went in
different directions, The skipper returned to the boat to catch up with the blog
and do some other
bits and pieces,
12,30 hrs Rory Quirke called to A Lady and He
and Skipper toddled off to " Trader Jack's " for lunch , A Sashsumi, and it was
great,
We arranged a plan to take the Quirke's, The
Tierney's , and whoever else , out for a sail on " A Lady" next wed, lunch
time.
Later on in the afternoon, as the skipper was
trying to negotiate a deal for a Helicopter ride around the Island, he noticed "
Snorrie"
walking towards the harbour, and looked like a
goast,
" Hey Snorrie, What happened to you, you look
terrible, did you get a shock "
Ohhhhhhh shit, It turned out that Snorrie had
gone off with Fats on the Scooter to find the Waterfall,
As they were driving down a hill, the surface of
the road got very loose and gravelly, the Scooter skidded, and " fats " went
headlong
over the handle bars, followed by " Snorrie" who
actually had a soft landing.......... yeah on top of Fats,
The whole thing was witnessed by a doctor , who
immidiatly called an ambulance , and the two crocks were bundled off to the
Hospital.
Snorrie explained that they holding onto Fats
for a while for observations and he was dispatched, and then walked all the way
back to the harbour
from the Hospital ( with a bandaged leg) A
distance of about 5 miles... good God , That wasent a great deal. it is no
wonder he looks shagged.
OH MY GOD ! Better get up to the Hospital and
check out the scene... Poor old Fats,,
So Skipper reved up the scooter and took off in the
direction of the Hospital, which was located half way up the side of a
mountain.
On arrival, Skipper was immidiatly shown into the
operating Theatre to find " Fats " lying on the operating table
looking as if he had been through a mangle
grinder,, blood everywhere,
After recovering from the shock of seeing poor old
Fats in such a state, he enquired from the Doctor, " whats the storey Doc.
"
Ohhhh , says the Doctor, " the bad news is, he will
be ok, " so feck , whats the good news," He will still be well able for
his all night solo orchestrial performances, but he will need some
stitches in his head and we have to remove a half ton of gravel from his flesh
" so, " So wil will keep him overnight for observation
"
Now " Fats" was in great humour, laughing and
joking with the doctor , myself and the nurses, even though he
looked a complete mess, So skipper decided to
go back to the boat and collect some clean clothes and knickers for the
patient,
and of course , the
camera, We couldent miss an oppertunity like this go by
without a record..
Back at the harbour, Snorrie, seem to be recovering
and his appetite had definatly returned, as he was wolfing down a largs
bagatte.
No sign of John around, so skipper collected some
Tee shirts, knickers, shorts, towels, and toothbrush's
and returned to the Hospital
By this time , they had put a coller on poor old
Fats, and bandages all around his head, and had moved him into a
ward.
He chatting to his neighbours, and then introduce
them all to the skipper. Well well, there's obviously no damage to his waffling
skills.
17.30 hrs Skipper returned to the
harbour, where " Mike's" birthday party was in full swing on board "
Jeannius".
After an explicid description of " Fat's"
condition, we all tucked into a few glasses of fine wine, and drank a toast to
our dear old " Fat;s"
Later we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner,
it was good food and good fun,
Jan Morton's sister insisted that she would look
after Fat's on his return, after all , she is a nurse.. oops , will he get
lucky !
We all returned to " A Lady" for a night
cap,watch some clips of our travels , before going to the
scratchers,
zzzzzzzzzz
Thats all for today, God what a
day!
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde, ( skipper )
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