" a lady trip " Sailing around the World with World ARC
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 5 May 2010 09:57
The last blog was Monday 26th and today as I sit
here and look at this computer, I have decided to combine the
last week into one blog. thus covering the 8 days
since.
Tuesday 27th . We
did some early morning jogging, like at 06.00hrs and joined lots of others on
the waterside prominade.
later we had the mechanics who serviced the engine
and the generator, part of our problem was the dirty fuel we got
in the Galapagos.
We will have to drain the fuel tank , have it
cleaned, and new desiel put on board. shit , what a deal !
Wednesday
28th Donal drove Skipper and Aileen to
the golf club , where they had a great game of golf.
the last time we played was in Lanzarotte and there
Aileen hammered the skipper. revenge is sweet and this time
the skipper won by 8 shots. a runaway score. (
cricket score )
Donal collected A & S at lungh time and we
returned to the boat to meet the mechanics again who finalised servicing the
generator.
They did a good job, it is now running much better
than it did for the last 8 weeks, but they themselves are not totally
happy.
but we will see how it goes over the next few
days.
Prize Giving............. for the leg
between the Galapagos and the marquises ( 3000 miles )
" A Lady " won first prize in her class
for the fastest time, and also a prize for Blogs,
WOW , thats a new one.
We were like the cats with the
cream.....
We met Casey from " wild Tigres" who had just
rejoined his boat, and had plenty of scoops before retiring to the
bunks.
Thursday 29 th
April
We had " A Lady " haulede out for a scrub and
antifouling, In the meantime, Donal booked himself into a hotel in
Papeete
while A & S took the ferry to " Moorea" . an
Island 12 miles from Tahiti. and booked into a hotel for the
weekend.
On arrival we met " Oliver Briac" a french
man living in Moorea for the last 30 years and started a project
called
" The Tiki Village" which we visited the next night
and was very impressive, displaying all the local dancers and local
cultures.
We were very impressed. and he will be at the
Shanghai Expo with his troop, this is now up and running.
The hotel gave us dinner on the beach, sitting in
cane chairs which looked more suitable for a Royal Couple... But
then !
A fantastic evening,
Donal, meanwhile , met up with some of the other
crews in Papeete and had a great night
A Good day..............
Friday 30th S
& A had a slow start, enjoying a bed that was not swaying all
over the place.
Skipper took a Kiac and paddled up to Cooks Bay and
had a chat with our U S friends, while Aileen had some beauty
treatment,
as women should... meanwhile , back in
Tahiti, Donal kept an eye on the work being done to " A Lady" and
later had a good time
with many of the other crews. He is a good
networker, and remembers names, which is very important in situations like
this....
Later , S & A went to the " Tiki Village
" for their dancing show,, God , what a performance.. Those wiggling asses on
the dolls.. Ohhhhhhh
We returned to the hotel and had a couple of hours
of local fantastic music... brilliant evening all round.
Oh my god ...... Those wiggling
asses.........will remember them for eternity.
Saturday 1st May
. May Day..........
breakfast.... christ , the chef couldent fry an egg
for all the tea in china, the grandchildren would have done a better
job, Bollux.
We did a bit of R + R and then some snorkling,
Later we hired a car and went off for lunch,
followed by a trip to " Tahia Collins" a pearl shop of international
fame.
We met " Matt " who is married to one of the
girls at the hotel and he used to play rugby, so he informed us that we could
watch Munster playing
on a local channel at 04.00hrs, which we did ,,,
Ohhhhhhh how dissapointing....to loose 18 / 7 ......... but thats
life , oh feck , the only bright thing left
in Ireland and it got zapped........... Maybe the
summer will be better than the last few years, and Cork Week will be great ! and
lift the spirits.
Sunday 2nd
May.
Shattered after spending most of the night watching
the match, Skipper went off and played a game of golf with Bob ( the Yank
)
while Aileen went off to Mass and prayed for
Skipper and all the others on her long list.
Donal was still enjoying all that Tahiti had to
offer........... Aileens prayers really worked for him, but the skipper is
forbidden
to tell, and especially on the blog...... but
it will all leak out eventually ... but for now, " mum's
the word "
We are so stuffed from food that we had just
dessert for dinner,, and at that it was too much,, we will turn into
monsters if we keep going like this.....
But then , this is such a fantastic place.. why not
!
Forty shades of Green,, this Island of
Moorea must have 50 shades,,
We have said so often how beautifull each place is,
and we have run out of words to describe the beauty, but " Moorea " is really
special.
amd we really enjoyed our few days here .... even
if it was bloody expensive..... 10 euros for a G& T, so add up the
rest..!
Monday 3rd May.
Up really early, breckfast, and shared a taxi to
the ferry with an american couple, from Chicago, and on their honey
moon,
They were off to " Tikaheu " which was the last
Island we had visited before sailing to Tahiti. we filled them in on all
the bits
and they thought we were the " berries
"
Back at the boat yard, we met Donal who was lord of
the manor and had everything under controll, well as much as
possible.
" A Lady " was launched at 12.00hrs and after some
radio work by the man himself, we got clearence to to proceed
to marina " tahina " south passed the
airport, this took 2 hours and after much manovering at the marina, we
eventually
were secured , stern on , to the
marina,
Aileen vanished as soon as we put out the gang
plank, ( as women will do ) and left the tidying up and filling the water
tanks to the boys.
Donal got a touch of sun stroke and had to take an
early siesta,
Later when Donal recovered and Aileen returned from
where ever, we went to the " Pink Coconut" and had a few drinks with the crew
from " Destiny"
and this was followed by a magnificant meal (
french style ) in the same place.
A couple of scoops on board before retiring to the
bunks for ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
TUESDAY 4 th MAY
Another beautifull in paradise,
Aileen shared a taxi with the crew of " Destiny" to
Papeete, while Donal went to the local " Carrafour " and did some
shopping,
( he really loves that, and likes to do it on his
own, Reminds us of his comment that the best commitee is made up of 3 people,
2 of whom are always sick and never attend
meetings, I like that myself )
Meanwhile, skipper does some boat work, including
fixing the fly screen in the forward cabin, cleaning the bilge under the Galley
floor
and the fan in the galley.
We had " Cyprian" replace on the top
of the mast the VHF ariel, and the radio seems to be working much
better, getting a range of 18 miles
as we tested it with " Jennious " as they were just
going into Moorea on the far side. So we are happy with that
for the moment.
bit by bit, we are making progress,
Later, The skipper got about fixing the
Davitt, We had got the parts from " Cooney Marine " , actually they sent
most of the parts
and only for some improvising, the job would never
have worked, They sent parts we never asked for, and letf us short
bits we requested.
Gob Shits. but then as we always say, Thats
boats.
Later , Donal cooked a Lamb Dinner, It was one of
the best dinners on board so far, ( God I hate to admit it ) but it truely
was....
even the raost potatoes were fantastic and his
gravy was out on its own , orgasmic..... and we are really not into gravy, just
Fats, god love him.
but overall it was just brill.. well
done " Fats "
Thats it for now ,
Signed :-
Stephen Hyde ( Skipper
)
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