Sailing around the World,

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Fri 21 Jan 2011 05:39
THURSDAY 20th
JANUARY 2011 ( Leah & Nanna's Birthday
)
You know how it is sometimes, you meet people and
its a few days later when you really remember
the meeting or chat or whatever,
Well, last night at dinner in the Oriental
Restaurant , we were joined by Dave and Angie from their yacht called "
Hurrah"
They are sailing around the worlds oceans, and at
present are exploring the Atlantic Ocean,
Sham & Emily met them on the wanderings around
St.Helena , and arranged that we would all go for a meal some night,
The reason for bringing this subject up is we think
we are great sailing around the world, but get put into our little
box
when we meet people like " Angie" , who sailed a
Hilliard yacht over and back across the atlantic in her early 20's on her
own,
Thats impressive, and she is such a nice
interesting person to boot.
Back to the World ARC, there are still boats
arriving today, as we are preparing to leave tonight, having spent the mandatory
72 hours stopover. we stocked up with fresh veg and
other bits of food, we can hardly get into the deep freeze again with
so much food in it right now.
The Harbour ( as mentioned previously ) is just a
big open bay , with a prominade or Quay wall running all along the
front of Jamestown , the capitol.
There is a permenant swell or surge here at
all times, some days it is worse than others, and the only means of going ashore
is on the local water taxi. ( there is no place to
land a dingy, or tie alongside )
The landing platform at the northern end of the
prominade is constructed in different levels with a big steel frame
overhead
which has a dozen 1" ropes with plenty of knots
hanging down from it.
The reason for all this is when the ferry / water
Taxi comes alongside the landing platform, it is swept backwards
and forwards , plus up and down with the huge
swells, (at least a meter or two at all times,)
The passangers have to wait untill the boat is
close enough and at the right level to be able to grab one of the ropes and jump
ashore
before the taxi dissapears from under your
feet.. and the feet usually get wet. it was all great fun
and one had to be quick, otherwise in a split
second, you could be in the drink, ohhhhhhhhhhhh.
Later, Sham went ashore and cleared the boats
papers in preperation for leaving while skipper changed the oil and filters in
the generator
plus replace some broken catches on the lockers,
Later, Sham and Emily played " Scrabble" on board " Hurrah " and then there was
the BBQ ashore at the Yacht Club at 6pm local tme,
We only spent a few minutes there saying good
bye , as the ferry stopped at 7pm and would
not be running again untill the BBQ was
finished. and we were leaving in the meantime.
22.22 hrs ( Cape Town ) we slipped our lines and
set sail westwards towards Brazil. there was little or no wind.
" Wild tigress " also left , more or less at the
same time.
We really enjoyed our brief stay at this little
paradise in the south atlantic.
Thas it for today
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (
skipper )
|