Sailing around the World
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 29 Jan 2011 07:32
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FRIDAY 28th January
2011
00.00hrs We are presently in the mid south
atlantic. and have covered 176 miles in the last 24 hrs
on our way to Salvador. The wind is light
from behind, the seas are moderate, and the skies are partly
cloudy.
09.00 hrs Radio Call :- " Lady Lisa "
is net controller for today. we could hardly hear them , even though they are
only 249 miles
behind us, with many relays by different boats,
we eventually got the positions of all boats and It seems we gained on
average about
10 / 15 miles on the fleet since this time
yesterday.
We even made 6 miles on " Wild Tigres " who is now
36 miles behind .
The morning gave us perfect sailing conditions,
with clear blue skies , deep blue water, a good breeze from behind, actually it
really
is too far behind, so we have to tack down wind.
sort of zig, zag, in an effort to maintain some reasonable speed
and keep the boat as stable as
possible,
Emily made a " Polenta" for lunch, and was consumed
in great style,
Shortly after lunch, we gybed the boat and put
up the Blue spinniker, Skipper lost his blue hat in the process, one of his
favourates.
but on we march towards Salvador,
Rally Control inform both ourselves and Wild
Tigress, that getting a marina berth has already been sorted out by them,
It may not be exactly where we want to be, but then
its a berth. we will see when we arrive, which looks like next Tuesday
morning,
As the afternoon wore on, the wind got lighter and
lighter, it eventually went below 9 knots , the seas were very confused,
and when the " Bag of fear" wrapped itself around
the forestay, we decided " enough is enough " we are not going to stay out here
is this
and destroy our sails, so after a lot of trouble
unrapping the spinniker from the forestay, we stuck on the engine and
motored.
Murphys Law............... We are within
motoring range of Brazil now, so if we have to motor the rest of the way, so be
it..
however, 30 minutes later, the wind had shifted
direction and increased to 20 knots again, plus the seas had moderated in the
meantime,
so we set up a goose wing , shut down the engine
and we were back in buisness again...
Skipper & Sham celebrated with a beer, while
Emily had a glass of wine, and Aileen had a juice.
Dinner, a homemade lasaigne was prepared and served
up by Emily, and was excellent.
Having dinner in the big " Ashtray" is very
different, and Mr. Tape really enjoyed the dinner, well , thats what we
think, because he
wont or cant talk. so we just have to
guess..
We discussed the various happenings during the day
before settling down to another night at sea.
Aileen is great to do her watch, and often covers
skippers as well, on the other hand, Sham usually has to do two
watches
often one after the other, so doing a 6 hour watch
while Emily remains tucked up, often in the cockpit or Ashtray.
Thats all for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, (
Skipper )
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