Sailing around the World
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Fri 11 Mar 2011 11:37
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THURSDAY 10th MARCH
2011
06.00hrs, the other yachts began to arrive down
from the Marina, Voyaguer just kept going having decided not to wait
around for the start. Kallopie on the other hand
took off around the same time for Paradise Island, about 300
miles
to the NE of Brazil, and Wild Tigress is well on
its way to Granada at this stage.
We slipped our lines from " Grand Filou " and made
our way to the starting line just outside the harbour,
The wind was ENE 15knots and our course for the
first 180 miles or so is just east of N.
The sea state was good and conditions generally
were excellent.
09.00hrs The START of leg 24, the
final leg of this around the World trip, and a distance of just over 2,000
miles.
We are in no rush to crack the start, afterall , we
have 2,000 miles to go, so no need to kill ourselves on the starting
line.
There was a clean start, and soon we began to claw
our way through the fleet, passing all boats ,except " Grand Filou"
and some other boats that decided to motor the
first 10 miles or so.
We had a close pass with the two American Sundeer
60's, however we were on starboard so they had to pass behind
us
and thats where they remained for the remainder of
the day.
As we headed north, the wind was 60 degrees
on our starboard side, so we had a close fetch, but with light winds ,
progress
for the first few hours was slow. However, as the
day passed , the wind increased and went more easterly giving us
a broad reach.
We ran into some very fresh squalls, with winds of
36 knots plus, and plenty of wind to go with them.
So lots of frantic action to take in quick reefs.
Aileen served her cottage pie lunch / dinner, made
yesterday and enough for 2 days, it was yum, yum,
Susanna took it easy on the food, as it usually takes her a couple of days
to settle into the rytheme of the boat.
so , lets not overdo it on the first day.
Late in the afternoon, we could see " Tzagine"
close behind, ( Half a mile )followed inshore by the 2 Sundeers
Grand Filou had gone out to the eastern horizon,
but we could still see them.
It was lovely to see the lights on the shore , all
be it 14 miles away, and a small moon to give some light ,
We passed through a couple of fleets of fishermen,
all fishing on the bank where the edge drops off from 26m to 1,000
m's
21.00hrs, ( The First 12 hrs ) we covered a
distance of 79 miles, ohhhhh, not great, but good in the conditions,
Our first night at sea again for a while, just 11
more to go.
Thats all for today.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, ( Skipper
)
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