Sailing around the World and avoiding the freeze ( Presently at sea, Cape Town to St. Helena )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 10 Jan 2011 05:49
MONDAY   9th   JANUARY   2011        DAY 3
 
The night passed without incident, a few tankers passed within a couple of miles and we could see another W. Arc boat
behind us, we think it was " Lady Lisa " but could not identify her.
Ohhhhh those stars, the dawn, the sun rise, the deep blue water, the clear blue skies, as they would say in the country side, " Just Magic"
 
Skipper remembers with great fondness our trips to Scotland with our friends " Ian & Alan Mc Millan " on Alan's Moody 336,
There again the Dusk's and the Dawns were something special, The crimson skies when the sun would be setting down
over Barra on the Outer Hybrides,  We still have the photo's on " A Lady" and dig them out every so often for a peep show.
 
Did you know that Barra , on South Ouist, was named after St. Finbarr , who hailed from Cork. He did so Boy.
and they still serve " Beamish " stout instead of Guinness, which is made in cork.
 
08.00hrs   distance travelled .................................... 159 miles
                distance to destination............................1,541 miles
 
09.00hrs   RADIO CALL   " Eowyn" is radio net controller for today and tomorrow,
We gave our position and recived the position of all the other boats, except Ocean Jasper & Crazy Horse who are still waiting for their visa's
to enter Brazil,  It seems the Americans need visa's to enter that country.
In any event, we are the lead boat in the race to St Helena,  Wild Tigris is ahead of us , but is motor sailing and not taking part in the race.
 
12.00hrs    Distance travelled in the first 24 hours.............................  195 miles
 
14.00hrs    We set up all the spinniker guys, sheets, uphauls and downhauls, snatch blocks etc.etc.we are going to fly the repaired KITE,
fifteen minutes later, we hauled up the KITE  ( parasail ) and were delighted when it filled and all seem to be well there.
It was great to have that towing us along again and of course it increased our speed by 1.5 knots, soon after, we left the othe yacht
vanish out of sight behind.
 
With just the KITE  flying, we had a great day sailing and enjoyed the whole thing, however we saw no birds or any sign of fish life.
 
Lunch was a ham salad, the left over gammon since yesterday , and it was yum, yum,  ---- keep the bellies full.
 
19.30hrs, We had another beautifull sunset just as we sat down it the starlight restaurant for a chicken curry
and rice prepared by Emily , all just lovely.
 
The wind was still blownig from the SW over our Port side and was on the increase, when it reached 28 knots, we decided to take down the
KITE and white sail the boat, A good decision as the wind kept increasing right up to 32/33 knots.
 
We chatted in the cockpit for hours before starting the night shifts,
 
EMILY...............................21.00hrs  /  00.00hrs
AILEEN.............................00.00hrs  /  03.00hrs
SKIPPER..........................03.00hrs  /  06.00hrs
SHAM...............................06.00hrs  /  09.00hrs
 
Thats all for today,
 
Signed :-    Stephen Hyde   ( Skipper )