Sailing around the World
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 26 Feb 2011 10:35
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FRIDAY 25th FEBRUARY
2011 ( Election Day in Ireland )
06.00hrs We woke upto all the people cheering
and playing ashore, Boy, their day starts early here
when its nice and cool, and again, all the
fishermen are busy on the river doing their thing.
Today, we leave here and Salvador and head NNE to
" Recife ", a total distance from where we are now of approx 400 miles,
We lifted the semi ridgit up onto the derricks
and strap it down tightly.
We had a light brekfast and stored all movable
objects before hauling the anchor about 09.00hrs,
The 3 other boats had already left,
The river was flat calm with little or no wind, so
we motored off down the 10 miles of green tree lined hills on both sides of
the river to Bahai Bay, Ohhh, It is so
peacfull, and beautifull. ( like a much bigger version of " East Ferry " )
From there we had another 25 miles or more to coast
before we set a proper course NNE.
Murphys Law, the wind kept following us around and
was still on the nose when we got to the open sea,
This will definatly be a slow 400 miles.
At this stage , we drew up with Voyageur and
Tzigane, so we will have their company for the trip, with Tucanon just a
short distance behind.
We passed along all the beaches, the highrise
appartment blocks and hotels, It all looked like a sandy
Manhattan,
We passed a huge Turtle just a few meters off our
port side, He was the biggest by far that we have seen at sea anywhere.
By 17.00hrs, the wind had increased to 16 knots or
more from thwe NE, so we had a slight angle to that breeze
and we opened up our mainsail and kept
motorsailing, but still only managing 5 to 5.5 knots over ground, of course we
had a
1.6 knot current against us, and this will last the
entire journey, just to make sure we dont get there too quickley.
We remained about 7 miles offshore and travelled
paralell to the coast.
We had and early dinner, " Bangers and Mash " with
a difference, The sausages were cooked with wedges of onions and
apples,
and the residue juice was used to make
gravey.
meanwhile , the Mashed and creamed potatoes had
Garlic and Mustard whipped into them along with plenty of salt, pepper, and
Butter,
so all in all, very tasty.
By 6pm it was almost dark, and there were plenty of
fishing boats around, however we could see most of them on Radar
and
take whatever avoiding action
needed,
there was plenty of lightning away to the west, so
we enjoyed watching it , knowing it was so far from the boat.
We got into the watches early, 3 hours on and 3
hours off, and it worked well.
The 1/4 moon came up around 00.30hrs and was
welcome as always, throw a little light on the sea. at least now we will be able
to
see the unlit fishing boats.
If anyone has any news on the elections, please
send us an email .
Thats all for now.
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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