" A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the World

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 17 Jun 2010 22:31
WEDNESDAY  16th  JUNE   2010        (  presently at Sea )
 
We had a big big breeze all night,  30+  knots  steady ,and directly behind us,
The seas were big, to match the breeze, and we roller sated down the waves.
Skippre spent most of the night in the cockpit, and reefed down the sails to 2 reefs in the main and 2 reefs in the headsail.
We were now goose winging our way across the south paciic.
We had a lot of lightning during the night, however, no thunder,
 
About a 100 miles out from Fiji, we passed a coule of ship wrecks on the reefs, this sight brought home to us very quickly
how dangerous this place can be, and the need to be extra vigilant.The Reefs do not show on the charts unless you
zoom in close, so on a general navigation course, these reefs would not be seen.  Scary stuff.
 
This was brilliant sailing, ohhhhh just wonderfull stufff.
As the day wore on, the wind increased, and by night fall it was honking 38 knots and gusting 44knots.
About 30 miles out, we got full phone reception, so we rang " Copra marina" and informed them of our intended arrival.
We also phoned ireland to see how Enda Kenny was surviving the attempted coo.on his leadership.
It seems like a close call, This will be interesting,  Poor Enda,  a very good manager of F.G. but not a vote getter
 
18.00hrs  we were now 2 hours from our waypoint, it was dark and the seas were huge,  
we could the roaring waves all around us, and many broke over the transome.something we havent seen before.
We touched 11.5 knots at times , as we scooted down the front of the waves,
 
19.00hrs we reached the entrance to Savausavau bay, We took down the sails as we had a sharp R.H. turn at the entrance
through a narrow coral reef channel. It was pitch black, one small flashing nav. light on our starboard side,
indicated we were in th right spot this boiling sea,    (  ohhh, please bring up the brown trousers again.)
 
35 mins. later, we were in out of all the weather and rough seas, and all was well again. bloody hell!, what was
all the fuss about anyway..........................
 
After motoring the 3 miles to our anchorage  and a little farting around, we dropped anchor and relaxed with
a large " Cork Dry Gin " & tonic.to celebrate our safe arrival.
It turned out that no one on board was the slightest bit worried about the last few hours
except the skipper himself...  Phew ! thats a vote of confidence at least.
 
12.00hrs  We had a light  " Fish Pie " prepared by Fats.  and then hit the scratchers.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
thats it for now,  a tough day.
 
Signed  ;-   Stephen Hyde    ( Skipper )