19 03S 169 55W
Libertyatsea10
Wed 1 Sep 2010 08:45
Dear Moley, we cross the date line on the next passage we will let you know!
..A beautiful if rolly day at anchorage with a gentle westerly tossing the boats around and everyone eagerly awaiting this front to pass so that we can land our dinghy on land. There is a lift hereon the dock, onto which we have to load the dinghy as the swell does not allow you to drive in and jump off ..interesting! Frank from Tahina, kindly gave us a lift in his massive dinghy but it was still a performance. We met another Irish boat , "Pylades". Nice folks!, as surprised to see us as we were to see the Irish tricolour flicking away in the anchorage. Grum, as an honorary Irishman, soon had his enormous tricolour wafting out behind us, in case they could not see our discrete one!!
They left 18 months ago from Kinvara in Galway. And Small world of course. the Skip went to school with Stephen from "A Lady". How can you be in one of the most remote anchorages in the world and bump into an Irish bloke who knows another Irish bloke that you know!!
This morning humpback whales glided past less than 50 metres from our boat. Some people went out in dive gear to join them. We just sat and watched, amazed.
Tonight we had another treat, with some huge whales passing so close to us we could feel their breaths, it was gloomy with failing light so we had to look hard to see their shapes but they were so so close that at one point Benj and I sat back off the deck in case one had misjudged and bumped us! Never heard of a whale bumping into an anchored yacht but I suppose there is always a first. Benj was worrying and wanted to put on the engine to warn them off or wake them up! But we would not let him, "let sleeping whales lie" I say!
I think I have to come clean with Ursula in Oz that we are sailing to the wedding rather than flying. I am sure she is wondering why we are being so vague about our plans and it has been jolly hard work keeping it all secret!. I am sure Ursula has enough to worry about and I don't want to add to her list at this stage. Yachties always swop their stories of where they are going and why, we just say we are going to a wedding! Looking at Ciara's piccie today, I got really excited about getting there and spending time with Ursula, and getting into role of weeping godmother as the gorgeous bride to be gets ready for her big day. I wonder if Ciara ever guessed what she walked us all into, when she let us know the date and country of her nuptials and was kind enough to invite us! I will always have a lot to thank her for as I am pretty sure I would never have got Grum to do this without the perfect excuse. However, when this bunch of sea gypsies turn up in boat bum clothes, looking unkempt and bedraggled, she may be horrified. ...
Hope Sarah and David had more wind in the Solent than we had on our passage here.....?
xxx