Sailing around the World, ( presently in " Suva " Fiji )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Fri 25 Jun 2010 05:35
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THURSDAY 24th
JUNE 2010
It is exactly 12 months ago since we left
crosshaven ( home port ) .
That was the start of our trip around the
World, and so far to date, we have covered 16,951 miles and visited
more than 65 ports
or destinations in 16 different
countries.
Our crews have changed from time to time, and so
far, we have had a great 12 months,
And its about to change again shortly, as Fat's and
Margaret are going home to Ireland, and spending some time in the U.S.A. on
route,
before reaching the " Old Sod" (
not together )
Anyway, today is a very cloudy day, We spent
ages deciding wether to push on or not, eventually after a load of
woffle,
we decided for all sorts of logical reasons , to
push on !
So we raised anchor and motored to the customs
dock, and skipper went ashore at
09.15hrs, believe it or not, the
customs guy had gone to the bank to discuss a loan for his new house,
Skipper was told to come back in an hour,
It was 12.00 hours when all the paperwork was
complete , and we were free to go. ( mind you , it took " Lady Lisa " 2 days to
get her clearances )
so we thought we were flying.
We sailed out through the eastern pass and headed
for " Savu " , the capitol of Fiji. a distance of approx 55
miles,
It was definatly going to be dark when we arrive in
Savu.
We motor sailed for a couple of hours , as the
girls were baking bread and cakes, so we needed to provide energy to the hungry
electric cooker.
also, the wind was light enough, so using the
engine was benificial.
Ohhhhh, its lovely to get the smell of fresh bread
and fruit cakes drifting up from the galley.... well done girls..
Lunch consisted of cold corned beef
sandwiches, yum yum
Progress was good during this period, the wind was
now 18 / 20 knots and we were averaging 8 knots,
And a lovely day to boot, not too
hot................... and every one enjoying the sail.
The whole journey had a continous reef off our
starboard side, at times this reef extended 4 miles out from the
coast
and was dotted with ship wrecks,
Ohhhhhh my god, ! how did the olden day
sailors from this area survive, no navigational aids, no bouys, markers ,
beacons or flashing lights,
Big sailing canoe's that would not go upwind very
well, and yet ,they sailed everywhere as there were no roads, and the bush was
full
of fierce canabels, ready to gobble up whatever
wandered into their territory...
Can you imagine being boiled alive, and then served
up for dinner,,,, yeach , yeaaaaaaaaaach,
but to them, it was probably like belly pork to
us,
Ohhh, shit how did we get onto this
subject......
17.30hrs We arrived at the entrance to
Suva and nibbled our way up through the pass, in the dark,
however, there was a full moon, so that always
makes things much easier.
We dropped anchor and Margaret made a meat loaf
dish for dinner, along with creamed spuds, and green pea's.
We had this in the Starlight restaurant as
usual. super dooper.
Later Aileen and Skipper went ashore to the " Royal
Suva Yacht Club " where they met Eoin Murphy from
Caherciveen , Co Kerry. small world ,
and getting smaller.
Fats , John and Margaret remained on board and
demolished half " A Ladys " red wine stock ,,,,,
Well, after all, what is wine for !
Not an early night, Skipper spoke to
Barbara Ahern in Dublin, A relation of hers is a priest in " Suva" can you
imagine..
We made contact with FR. Hannan in the morning, and
had a good chat with him on the phone on the phone.
We also had an email from Elenor Cudmore, good to
she is on the mend...
Thats it for today,
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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