Sailing around the World

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 26 Jan 2011 04:58
TUESDAY  25th  JANUARY  2011
 
00.20hrs    Distance travelled.................................748 miles
                 Distance to Destination.......................1,178 miles
 
It was a good night at sea, the wind held steady all night, and the moon always makes for great night sailing,
we are still on a starboard broad reach, heading NW , with a goose wing set.
 
06.00hrs  We have moved our position from 36 miles south of our rum line to 24 miles north of the rum line, so we decided
it was time to gybe back onto port. which we did over the next 35 minutes, but we also put up the " Bag of fear"
and off we went .
 
Dawn and sunrise were as beautifull as ever, that big huge crimson ball of fire creeping up over the eastern horizon is
magic, It certainly reassures one that a new day, a new time, another new start is happening just now.
 
09.00hrs  Radio Call  :- net controller today is " A Lady" 
We just held our own with the fleet, Our move northwards slowed down progress in the short time, just for a day.
hopefully it will pay dividends in the longer term..
However, we seem to have much more wind than the rest of the fleet, the effects of this will show tomorrow morning.
 
Our morning coffee discussion revolved around the band " The U 2 "  This very successfull Irish band will be holding a concert
in Cape Town in a few weeks time, Sham and Emily are hoping to go back stage after the event, as Emily used to work for them 
in " Wind Mill Lane " in london many years ago, when they were in their early days and almost unknown,,,,
 
Aileen decided to make more brown bread, all on board love this bread, including Mr. Tape. ( Worm )  He cant wait for
Sham to fill him up again.......
 
As the day wore on, it got very hot, the temp. in the Saloon was 29 degrees and the humidity was 60%
We had plenty of showers, thats the great thing about being able to make about 150L of water per hour with
the water maker or desalination plant on board.  plenty of water for showers and washing.
 
A very large tanker passed within a mile of us during Dinner heading SE towards the Cape of Good Hope. 
Dinner ( by Skipper ) consisted of Roast smoked Belly Pork, with all that wonderfull crackling, creamed potatoes with
cabbage and chopped up onions mixed through them and a couple of spoons of Mayo to finish them off.
added to this heart attack stuff, we had fresh green beans and carrots.  and a can of beer,
 
We admired the flying fish , hundreds of them as they continously fly away from the boat, its an every day, if not an every hour
occurance, but we are so used to it , we tend to forget about this wonderfull sight.
 
The Beer is in celebration of us crossing half way during the comming night.
 
 
The night watches tonight  :-      9pm /  00  ...............................Sham
                                               00    /  03 am............................Emily
                                               03am  /  06 am..........................Aileen
                                               06 am  /  09 am..........................Skipper
 
Thats all .
 
Signed :-   Stephen Hyde    ( Skipper )