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 )