Sailing around the World.

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 17 Mar 2011 19:16
THURSDAY  17th March 2011    ( St. Patricks Day )
 
00.00hrs, A great sailing night,
A close starboard fetch with 25knots of breeze, A good moon, although it was partly hidden by clouds,
Skipper did the 12 to 03 watch, Suzanna did the 03 to 06 watch  and Aileen did untill 09.00 hrs.
 
At 06.00hrs  The flippen wind suddenly changed direction into the NW, directly on the nose.
this was followed shortly by torrential rain which lasted for 7 hours,  Ohhh , things could not be worse, we
were all soaked again, and then the port plastic window in the " Spray Hood " just blew in , exposing us to the full
force of the elements.
Did you ever think to your self  " I hate this sailing lark " well , we were close to that, poor suzanna was not good, It is unlikely
that she will go to sea again, or certainly not down here anyway..
 
Who said sailing is a pleasure, ! yes if you like being soaked wet, freezing cold, ( yes ,on the equator ) almost full gales
in your face, and real angry seas to boot. enough to make a " Sheppard kick his dog "
Still, theres Granada to look forward to, the weather will surely be better there, if we ever get there,  
 
We were Radio net controller today, and it was difficult to know what is really happening as so many boats have
slowed down to keep " Basia " company on her long and slow journey to the Carribbean,
 
Oh, by the way, the photo of Aileen getting a full frontal was taken by Suzanna,
Oh , and another thing, Skipper has entered " A Lady " in the Oyster Regatta in Granada , from the 11th to 16th April
but is still short of crew,
 
What skipper did in the torrential rain was clean down the fibreglass toe rails, and polist the stainless steel
fittings, this way, the rain washed away the cleaners and polishes,  nothing much else to do .
 
Eventually , the wind died down during the afternoon, so we had to motor sail again, making six knots towards our destination,
now just about 800 miles away.
Skipper put out the fishing rod once more, to try his luck again,  soooo we will have to wait and sea,
at least there are millions of flying fish around, and we had lots of them on the deck last night
If the flying fish are there, then there must be other bigger fish in the sea, we are sick of Brazilian beef,
 
Ohh, nearly forgot, we had a lovely email from Sylvia and Herman , who have just returned to Germany from the Yacht " destiny "
you will remember them for the Whiskey night. and originally they were to do this leg with us, but something happened
and their dream came to an abrupt end.  
 
well that all for now from the " Sick of sailing " bunnies,
 
Signed :-  Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )