Sailing around the World, ( presently at sea between Vanuatu and Mackay , Australia. )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 18 Jul 2010 18:01
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SUNDAY 18th
JULY 2010 Night
3
00.00hrs John's watch.....We have
sailed without motoring 401 miles since we left Port Vila last Thursday at
midday,
and we sailed 106 of those miles in the last 12 hours, thats good
going for us.
03.00hrs, Aileens watch.....Another
beautifull starrey night, the wind is 30 knots on the beam and we are scooting
along
towards the Great barrier Reef in great style,
06.00hrs Skippers watch..... Its
such a joy to watch the dawn break, and so many people never witness it at all,
I remember when
we
were teenagers, my brother Rom and myself used to go out hunting rabbits at
4 am in the morning, a few mornings each week in the
summer time, It made great pocket money
for us, ( god ! how things have changed since then. no one has to do those
kind of things
anymore. ) .Even then, we always marvelled at the
breaking dawns, and on the way home on the motorbikes about 7am, everyone was
still
asleep in their beds, Crikey and we had a half day done already..
09.00hrs Radio call
..........Well we be blowed down,, The two Sundeer 60's have taken off
like shit off a shovel, They have doubled the lead
on us to approx 60 miles, WOW thats impressive, In the 10,000 miles
we have sailed so far, they never before got that far ahead of
us,
especially in such a short period of time... we are just bowled over and
when you think about it, we are covering over 200 miles
a day, which is the absolute limit of " A Ladys" performance.. well done
guys and doll.
Meanwhile, we are well ahead of the rest of the fleet, the only boat near us is
" Kalliope III " from Spain, she is approx 15 miles
behind us, Kalliope is a Hanse 531, and they are fast
boats,
Its great to hear all the different nationalities on the radio, and how they all
react to being on air, We like " the Bubbly Bev " currently
sailing on " Tucanon" a catamaran, She is just gas and full of the
joys,
12.00hrs Midday.........Distance
travelled............................. 503 nautical miles ( 1
nautical mile = 1.1 miles )
Distance to the Barrier Reef................510 nautical miles
Distance in the last 24hrs...................208 nautical miles
Weather:- clear skies, moderate/ rough sea's, 27
/ 36 knots of wind aft of beam .
speed 9 - 11 knots,
We had a school of " Risso's " dolphins with us for an hour or so, These
dolphins do not ride the bow waves like other dolphins,
they just escorted us along on our journey to Aus, for a while.
Gosh, its hard to imagine that we have sailed all this way , and now, we
are nearly in Australia,, A great feeling of achievment.
13.00hrs Lunch, we havent mentioned lunch for
a while, but now we have to get rid of all our food before we reach
Australia,
So lunch today is :- cold stuffed porksteak,
Prawns and marie rose sauce,
hard boiled eggs,
raw carrots... ( the ruffage)
bread and butter,
packet slices of ham.
We will be like stuffed pigs , by the time we arrive in Aus. right now,
who cares..........
15.00hrs, we were still sailing like the
hammers of hell,
18.00hrs There was a lovely 1/2 moon
lying on its back right over our heads, just lovely again to see the
reflection of the moon shimmer
across the sea at night.
20 .oohrs Dinner was by Scotty,
and consisted of a Cottage pie, In fairness to the man, he spent
hours preparing it all, whats more ( previously
mentioned) the onions are soooooooo strong, we were all crying when he was
chopping them in the Galley... sob,sob.
Anyway, we had it in the " Royal Saloon" as it was too chilly outside in
the " Starlight Restaurant" and it was great .... yum yum
We
also cooked at the same time other meat from the deep freezer , to be used for
cold lunches over the next few days.
The Night Watches
:- 21.00hrs
/ 00.00hrs .................
Scotty
00.00hrs
/ 03.00hrs.................. Aileen
03.00hrs / 06.00hrs......................skipper
06.00hrs / 09.00hrs.......................Scotty
Boy, we were shagged from all the eating today, and
whats more, there's more tomorrow and the dayafter, and the dayafter,
and..........ohhhh
thats all for now,
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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