Sailing around the World ( Presently departing Thursday Island, Australia )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Fri 20 Aug 2010 01:56
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THURSDAY 19th
AUGUST 2010 ( Judith Meade's
birthday, skippers sister )
One of the sayings on the pavement on Thursday
Island read :- " The past exists, for the present , to
create the future "
Thats good,
The Islands are very interesting , but we wont have
time to explore them,, We will just to say we have been to T.I. as we
leave for Darwin today at noon.
07.00hrs, We all got ready for a trip ashore to
T.I. The ferry only runs every hour on the half hour, so we got the 08.30hrs
Skipper went to the hotel looking for the
lovely Susanne, ( rally control ) but instead met an Irish lass behind the
reception desk,
Her name is Sinead, and hails from Dublin, but, has
cousins " the Browns" living in Blackrock, Cork.
I Have said it before, what a small world we live
in today, God,! Thursday Island, How did she wind up there ,, ! just by
chance
She was looking for a job in Cairns and was offered
this along with her German friend, so off they went, off to T.I..
It was great to hear another Irish
accent.
Skipper completed the necessary paperwork before
returning to the boat, and boy, oh boy, had the wind increased in the last
hour,,
It was blowing skittles, like 39
knots, wow, another breezy day at sea.
Skipper put some steak in the pressure cooker for
dinner tonight, It will be mixed with a Salsa sauce, ( out of a jar ) plus
rice.
When the others returned , we prepared to leave,
but were going to be 35 minutes late for the start of leg 13,,
This is becomming a regular habbit.. late for
everything......
12.35hrs we crossed the starting line, but the rest
of the fleet were well gone, and with a breeze of 48 knots, gone very
fast.
We passed " Friday Island" on our port side as
we sailed our way out through the reefs, We had 2 reefs in the main,
in fact, we are having trouble with the main,
The edging on the slot going up the back of the mast came undone in the heat and
has wound around the mainsail inside the mast
itself,, ohhhhhh, this will be tricky to solve.but, but , we will
leave it for the present.
There are no volunteers to go aloft in this
breeze.
The weather is hot and humid, there is a kind of
mist all around the place, and yet not a cloud to be seen.
We follow " Bruce " the weatherman's advice and set
a course 280T for the next 100km,
this will keep us out from the wind shadow of "
Cape York " or that what he says.
Destination....................................Darwin
Distance........................................830
n miles,
Wind.............................................45 / 48
knots ESE
Sea
state.......................................moderate
Weather.........................................Sunny hazy humid
day
Crew :- Stephen Hyde ( skipper )
Aileen Hyde, family ambassidor. Niall and Mary O'Rielly.
We had lots of emails from different
people, including Leah and Sarah, Margaret How, etc.
It seems that Leah bumped into Colm
O'Sullivan in Dublin last week and he reads the blog all the time, Colm
used to sail with our children
in the RCYC many moons ago, and now makes
soup and other food stuff for a living, ( Cully and Sully
)
We had to gybe the boat a few times, as the wind
shifted around,
When it got dark , we set the mainsail and staysail
on a broad port reach, the wind was still blowing in excess of 30
knots
so we scooted along at 8 knots .
20.30hrs, We had the Salsa / steak dish with
rice and it was just the job, tasty and not too much, ideal for
rough weather sailing,
all be it, down
wind...
The moon gets bigger each night, so we had a bright
night, well untill midnight ,
Watches,
21.00hrs /
00.00hrs ............................Aileen
00.00hrs
/ 03.00hrs.............................Stephen
03.00hrs
/ 06.00hrs.............................Mary
06.00hrs / 09.00hrs.............................Niall
Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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