Sailing around the World ( presently at sea, between Fiji & Tanna, Vanuatu, South Pacific.)
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 4 Jul 2010 16:56
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SUNDAY 4th JULY
2010 Independance Day
During the starrey night, there was this boat a few
miles on our starboard side, and it seemed to be getting closer,
skipper went a few degrees to port so we would not
get too close, but they kept comming, so we went another 10degrees
to port, and they still kept comming,
Suddenly, and without any warning, they just shot
across our bow, not more than 60mts in front of us. Bloody hell
!
Skipper got on the VHF immidiatly
" This is the yacht A Lady, please identify yourself
"
A minute later, " Hi Stephen, This is Chessy,
how are you " well I'll be damned, that was close in an ocean as big as
this,
Its amazing the things that cross your mind in the
middle of the night when your at sea, anything from Sea Monsters to Gost
ships,
but last night, I thought , how are Marrion and
Ingrid getting on in Germany, When I see the stars dancing in the sky
and
in particular my referance to the southern cross
many months ago, I think of how Ingrid corrected me on where the stars could be
seen from.!
Actually, Ingrid says they have a special pair
of binoculars that identifies all the different stars.and how far away they are
from us.
facinating stuff, We must get hold of one of
these things.
As we said before , its great to get emails, this
week, we had traffic from, Aileens sisters, Ann & Michelle, ( michelle
is usually great for the constant
contact.) Barbara Ahern, Brendan
O'Conell, Bro. Alfred, Sarah , Niall O Rielly, Alan Mc Millan, Kevin Dwyer,
Veronica, Elenor Cudmore,
and our dear departed Margaret How. and
others...............
06.00hrs It was a pretty uneventfull
night , apart from chessy, The wind has dropped right down to 14 / 18 knots, but
a little more aft of beam,
just lovely night sailing conditions,
By this stage, we had nearly caught up and passed
the most of the fleet.
Aileen is still fairly shook, and having spent most
of the night asleep in the cockpit, decided to head for the
scratcher.
09.00hrs Skipper and Scotty decided to fly
the " Kite " . To set up all the sheets, guys, up hauls , down hauls,
spinniker pole ,
not to mind the kite itself takes about 20 mins,
and then 5 / 10 mins, to get the thing up and working.
But once all that is done, its a great sail, and
more than anything else, keeps the boat so stable,
We discussed the cost of it later on in the day,
There's no doubt that it is a very expensive bit of kit. and you really have to
practice
putting it up and taking it down .. Good for
the figure......
12.00hrs The daily roll call on the SSB for
the fleet..
We can hear the incomming traffic fine, but our
outbound signal is so poor that we can only send 10 miles max.
Anyway, it seems that there are now only 2 boats
ahead of us, so we have recovered our lost 45 mins at the start fairly
well by now.
The wind has now dropped to 9 / 12 knots, so
progress is slowing down, but this does not worry us too much, as we dont want
to arrive
here in the dark again. Weve had enough of
that lark.....................
16.00hrs, Aileen is feeling much better by now, and
is up and about.
Skipper get going on the dinner,
Tonight , we are giong to have :- raost ,
stuffed, and rolled " belly Pork " roast spuds, creamed potatoes
mixed with
sweet potatoes, carrots, and green
beans, plus apple sauce.. The crackling was mighty....
yum yum..
We ate in the " Starlight Restaurant " as usual,
with Skipper and Scotty having one G & T each
The other two dont drink, but Daniel smokes like a
trooper.
The wind died down to 5 knots, so all hands on deck
and take down the " Kite "
We will have to motor, but all this is as
was pridected by our weather forcastors.
Tomorrow, they say that the wind will be in the
west for the early part of dawn, so we are staying 10 miles or so , south of our
rum line.
to allow for that situation.
The watches are as follows
:-
21.00hrs, /
00.00hrs Daniel
00.00hrs
/ 03.00hrs
Scotty
03.00hrs /
06.00hrs Skipper
06.00hrs
/ 09.00hrs Daniel
Well ! thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( skipper )
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