" A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the World,
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Fri 28 May 2010 07:11
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THURSDAY 27th MAY
2010 ( Presently in Rarotonga )
08.00hrs A bright beautifull morning in
Rarotonga, we cleaned up the boat after the mess the army of kids made
last night,
but they were great, and we all enjoyed the day and
evening on " A Lady"
S. read the emails from lots of well wishers , all
enquiring about " Fats " and how he is doing.
S. tried in vain to get a seat on the Daily
Helicopter sight seeing tour. booked up again, These guys are busy,
busy.
So , S. got on the scooter and motored up the
mountain to the Hospital to see how " Fats" is doing, and will he be returning
to the ship today!
On arrival, there was your man sitting in the
hallway reading a news paper, and whats more, he looked much
better,
The colour on his head had returned to normal, and
we could see all the stitches clearly now, ( his new War Wounds)
actually, in Rarotonga, they refer to damage like "
Fats " has as " Cook Island Tatoo's " how about
that....
It seems that accidents on scooters here are
common, a few every day,
His four days in Hospital cost the princly sum of
700 euros,, not too bad.. God, could you imagine what that would cost at home
!
and he said the food was reasonable to good
!......
John was already doing his thing down town, so
skipper stopped at a cafe across from the airport for a coffee and
scone,
but wound up stuffing his face completly with lots
of the wonderfull, sinfull, fatning, gooey food, on offer in the
place,
It was so good, that the skipper bought plenty of
Quiche's and other pie's for the deep freezer on board.
The owner " Stu " from NZ, was really
blown away, when skipper informed him that we had Josh Cronfeld out sailing with
us !
and signed our visitors book..
It seems that Josh, was up giving a talk to an
awards ceromony in Rarotonga, The Tierney's got to know and entertain him and
his wife
" bronwyn" and baby Cassius, Walla, next
thing , they are on board " A Lady" and off out for a sail with :-
Rory,& Erin, and their children , Finn & Issey,
Anne tierney, Skipper and John the
scot.
Donal has been told that he has to return to the
hospital next monday, so that means he cannot sail with us today,,,
so its decided he will stay with our NBF's ,,, The
Tierneys for the few days, and then if every thing is ok next monday, he will
find his way back to the boat, where ever we
are.!
13.30hrs We are interviewed by the local
press, so we explained that we were doing a round the world trip with the "
World ARC "
and it was really an accident or chance that we
wound up in their wonderfull Island. 7 yachts from the world ARC fleet
eventually made
their way to Rarotonga.
After all that, we set about preparing the boat to
go to sea, we had to clear the harbour authorities, the customs, and
immigration
and pay an exit Tax, feck, did you ever , an
exit tax............... yes NZ $55.50 each, ( 27,75 euros
)
However, we will not complain,, we really enjoyed
the visit to their Island.
17.00hrs We untied our shore lines, hauled
the anchor, waved " bon Vouyage" to all our fellow sailors ( they are not
leaving untill
tomorrow , Friday ) and motored out of the
little harbour . once outside, we opened up all the sails and set a course for "
Niue "
a distence of 585 miles.
ETA next Monday morning at
08.00hrs.
The wind was right behind and blowing a steady
24/26 knots so we goosewinged the boat and soon we were sailing
at a steady 8.5 knots.
On board :- Skipper and John (
Scotty) so night watches will be , 4 hrs on, and 4 hours off,
very simple
Its called the KISS principle " Keep It
Simple , Stupid. "
Thats it from the middle of the South Pacific Ocean
again. This time, a clear night with a full Moon climbing high up over the
boat,
just a wonderfull night for sailing, and the
temperature is a cool 28 C degrees.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, ( Skipper
)
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