Sailing around the world,

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 16 Jan 2011 10:23
SATURDAY  15th  JANUARY  2011
 
00.01 hrs  .Our distance to Destination is  ( St. Helena ) ...........................................463 miles,
                 We had 2 reefs in the mainsail and the bag of fear flying,  the wind was SSE  18  /  20 knots,
                 The seas were flat and weather good.
 
07.00hrs.  The wind increased to about 28  /  29 knots , se Skipper got Sham out of the Scratcher ( bunk )
and we took down the spinniker, and it was a tough job, we were perspiring so much when finished, one could squeeze us dry.
But, but,  " Murphys Law " came into the picture , and 10 minutes later, the wind dropped away down to 12 knots.. ahhhhhh,
after all our trouble, damn  " Murphys law "  we will have to take out a contract on Murphy to have it assassinated.
 
We were whacked , a coffee and a nap to recharge the batteries, thats the human batteries.
 
09.00hrs  Radio Call, We gained ground again on the fleet and reduced " Wild Tigress " lead from 48 miles to 13 miles.
That really pleased us, even though we really like everyone on that boat, and the skipper " Sean " is Irish, Well, the Independent
republic of Donegal.
 
10.30, We decided to hoist the KITE , As we were getting the thing ready on the deck,  the foot blew over the side and caused panic
for about 3 minutes untill we had it back on board,  Shortly after, we had the KITE flying , nicely thanks very much.....
Spinnikers in the water / sea is not good news,  It brings back terrible memories of the spinnikers on the " 1720" sports boat.
Skipper tore at least 2 masts out of his 1720 over the years all because the kite got into the water and bang, wallop,
bye,bye mast.  ohhhh the pain of it all, not to mention the cost and inconvenience.
 
 THE SPINNIKER  :-  the 2 spinnikers we have on board are 1. the " parasail " or KITE as we call it, and the other is the
blue  spinniker or " Bag of Fear " as Fr Terry named it,  When putting them up or taking them down we use a " Sock " system,
.This sock is about 12" wide and made of strong light sail material, aand is the length of the sail.
when we hoist the spinniker, it is inside the sock, when it reaches the top of the mast, then we pull up the sock to the top
and the spinniker opens out nicely, taking it down, we just pull the sock back down over the sail and it snuffs the sail
therebye making it easy to retrieve and put back into its bag on deck.
 
Midday, We spotted a sail on the horizon ahaed of us,  It has to be " Wild Tigres" and whats more 6  /  7 miles is about the limit of
our vision. , so that means we have taken a lot out of them...
 
We spent time relaxing and cleaning the floating Ashtray , oppppps , we really mean the cockpit.
But, but, we really like the smell of the pipe, well thats for now.
 
The day was just magic, beautifull flat blue water , and clear blue skies, what more do we want,
Ohh, a Gin & tonic, and we did, gosh , it tasted fantastic.
 
06.00hrs, Roll call, everyone had a good day and we got the position of " Destiny"..... we were worried that she may have gone
well past us  as she did not give her position for the last 2 days. but now she is 139 miles away from us.....and not out front.
 
Skipper , did the dinner, His Hungarien sweet and sour goolash speciality, with creamed potatoes with a small bit of
horse raddish sauce mixed in to give it a little kick.  it all tasted wonderfull and not a scrap left over,
were we hungry , or was it a good meal ?
 
Yesterday, skipper got his dates all mixed up regarding the " Munster match "  that is being played on Sunday .....
 
Before we sign of, A  BIG  HELLO to Paul Hassett & Bill Walsh from all on " A Lady",  Skipper, Aileen, Sham and Emily
 
Thats it ,
 
Signed,    Stephen Hyde.   ( Skipper )