Sailing around the World, ( Presently at sea, the Arafura sea, northern Australia )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 22 Aug 2010 22:48
SUNDAY  22nd   AUGUST   2010
 
00.30hrs, Distance travelled, 462 n miles
               Wind  .................20 / 25 knots  E to ESE
               Weather.............. moderate to flat sea,  beautifull night .
 
09.35hrs   Radio call , nothing, but we sent Eowyn our position by email.
We did see another yacht on the horizon, but could not raise her on the radio/ VHF,,   Later, it turned out the yacht was " Grand Filou "
 
We tried some fishing, but the fish kept gobbling our lures, so we gave up in the end as a bad job.
 
12.35 hrs   It is such a pleasure to sail with just the Parasail flying, " KITE " and we have covered another 201 n miles in the last 24hrs.
                 Another beautifull Day.
                 We had last nights leftovers for lunch in the cockpit,
                 this was followed by more sunburning, naps, sipping water, and the usual things one does at sea, read, and read more again.
                 the temperature is a nice 31 degrees,, but a bit humid..
 
17.35  We saw another yacht on the horizon, It could not be one of our's , as no one in the fleet ( Except Gran Filou, and the 2 Sundeers, )
could keep up with the speed we were doing. and we know that the Sundeers are still sailing up the great barrier reef at present, so
its not one of them,  
Then the radio crackled, and the yacht was in fact " Arianne "  cripes, how did she get there we asked ourselves, We never see that boat
after the first hour or so, she is so slow,
BUT,  always the but,,,    It turned out that she left " Thursday Island " one day ahead of us,,,    ahhhhhhhh well , that explains it all,  pheww
 
We moved the clocks to +9.30hrs UTC
 
As we sailed past Cape Don, the wind shifted all over the place, so we had to drop the Kite, having flown it for over 2 days without taking it
down to check the halyards or guy's
We had the company of " Gran Filou "  and   "Arianne " as we passed Cape Don, and sailed towards Darwin.
 
18.35hrs,, The wind almost vanished, just a mere 3.2knots, so we started the engine and motored along merrily, had 2 G&T's to
celebrate doing 2 consecutive days of over 200miles per day.....
 
19 .30hrs   We had a Tuna salad, made by Mary,, we have to get rid of all fruit and veg before we hit Darwin. so today we eat whats there
or chuck it into the sea.. ( Bio degradable stufff)
 
21.00hrs,,, Night watches :-     21,00hrs    /     03.00hrs     Niall and Mary
                                              03.00hrs   /     09.00hrs      Stephen  and Aileen.
 
 
Thats all
 
Signed :-  Stephen Hyde    ( Skipper )