Eating our way around the World.
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 2 Feb 2011 10:41
MONDAY 31st JANUARY
2011
Yet again another beautifull warm night at sea with
a big increase in shipping traffic passing bye.
06.00hrs Distance to
Salvador................................141 miles,
We are getting close to Brazil, we should arrive
there around midnight tonight,
We adjusted all our clocks and watches for the 3rd
time since leaving St. Helena, so we are now in Brazil time zone.
07.00hrs ( local Brazillian time) RADIO
CALL :- today, the net controller was shared between " Thor
V1! and Mike from " Eowyn "
We gained an arerage of 20 miles per boat on the
fleet over the last 24 hours, except for " Wild tigress" who motored and
is now
74 miles ahead of " A Lady"
Shortly after radfio call, the wind almost
vanished, so we had to start the engine and motor westwards.
It was a beautifull day , very hot, but not a cloud
in the Sky.
the fishing was not good,
Lunch was salmon ( the tinned variety ) mixed with
Mayonnaise on toasted bread, yum, yum,
The wind increased later in the afternoon to about
10 / 12 knots from behind, but we decided to keep motor sailing
and be sure of our ETA , after all Paul and Susanna
from World ARC promised they would wait up for us and give us a
hand
when we arrive at the marina,
We are now comming to the end of another big
milestone, crossing the Southern Ocean,
Sun set, about 19.00hrs we had a
fantastic sunset, and you must have heard of the mithical " Green Flash "
as the last bit of the
sun goes down over the Horizon. ( well, we never
heard of it untill this trip ). Many of the sailors we met spoke of the
green flash,
but only a few ever saw it,
We thought we saw it twice crossing the Pacific,
but were not really sure of that , it could have been our imagination playing
tricks,
Skipper was explaining all this to Sham and Emily ,
just as the last bit of the sun sank into the Sea and guess what,
The GREEN FLASH , and no question about it
this time, a real vivid green flash as that last bit of sun
turned green for a split second,
Wow, that is another one for the books, and
something else for us all to remember about this Leg,
As darkness fell over the sea, we began to see
lights on the horizon, BRAZIL....
Ohhhh, how exciting , we had already emailed our
ETA to rally control , so they are expecting us, as already mentioned above.
The lights grew bigger and bigger and closer as we
had dinner , Very tasty marinated chicken cutlets which we had in the deep
freeze
since Australia, plus bacon and cabbage mixed through the creamed potatoes, with the
last of the carrots,
It was different and all enjoyed our last dinner at
sea together, we also finished off the small drop of Rum and tonic that was
left on board.
We radioed Paul as we approached the finish line,
the time of the finish was in Cape Town time,
We were now only a few hundred yards off shore as
we scooted past the beaches and high rise buildings on our starbaord
side,
we watched all this new horizon with great
interest, we will be there shortly,
Having crossed the finish line, we made our way
into salvadors huge harbour and headed for the marina , following the
instructions
we were given earlier, Every one on board was
excited, just another 15 minutes, and we will be there at the marina,
and sure enough , we were.
Paul, Susanna, and Sean from " Wild Tigres" we ther
to greet us , help tie us alongside the marina and give us a few welcome drinks
..
Great, all done....
We enjoyed the next hour or so, polishing off as
much wine as we could manage and eventually hit the "
scratchers"
Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper
)
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