Sailing around the World

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 29 Jan 2011 07:32
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 )