" A LADY TRIP" Sailing around the World and avioding the shite at home. ( Las Perlas Islands, Panama)
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sun 7 Feb 2010 13:30
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SATURDAY 6th
FEBRUARY 2010
Crew :- S and A Hyde, D Mc Clemant,
& K Dwyer.
07.00hrs Woke up to lots of birds chattering
on the adjacent island,
We had a light breckfast and some went for a swim ,
the water here is much more cloudy than we are used to in the
Atlantic.
However this might be as a result of the strong
tides in the area.
We ran the generator for a while and found it
difficult to shut down. this is a worrowing bleedin thing as a problem with the
generator
would be a major problem,
We will have to look into this later.
09.00hrs we weighed anchor and nibbled our way
south through the very narrow and shallow channels at this place,
We then tried to unfurl the Mainsail and it just
would not work, not a gig, Feck, what next !
For at least 2 hours we were convinced that we had
a burst Hydrolic pipe and in the middle of trying to locate the
problem
the Skipper dropped or knocked the air cleaner into
the Bilge, which is at least 5feet down and difficult ot get at ...Ohhhhhhh what
next.
11.00nrs Things started to improve, Kevins phone
was back to normal with all functions working,( so Aileens Prayers did work
after all,)
Then we discover that the Mainsail was rolled up the wrong way ( we wont
mention WHO did that , but they are not in the skinny devision)
Whew ! at least things are beggining to work again and with a little confidence
returning to the ship we decide to R.T.F.M. on the Generator.
( R.T,F.M. = Read The Friggin Manual ) Its amazing what
we learnt, simple stupid, why dident we do this before we left
Cork,
So next time we used the generator, we shut it down in accordance with the
manual, amazing ! it seemed to work perfectly.
13.00hrsWe dropped anchor at the Island of "
San Jose" as we were on a mission here, We had a few bags of food and provisions
for
an elderly German lady, living alone on the
Island.
When we eventually found her in her tin shed
overlooking the bay, it turned out that she ran away from her husband and kids
26years ago and sailed from Germany to here in a 24foot sail boat with
her lover and dropped anchor, then went ashore and built the tin shed home
and survived on
sheep, hens and fruit that they looked after......(
mind you, the local Crockadiles do well on her chickens )
They lived happily ever afterwards, that is untill
her lover died 12 months ago, so she is now very lonely, but there is hope
on the horizon,
one of her daughters ( who lives in a castle in
Frankfurt ) is coming to visit next her next month and it seems she will
take " Gerda" back to Germany.
So alls well that should end well. ( Its
kinda funny, writers do books on this sort of storey and they become best
sellers)
16.00 hrs we departed " Gerda's " place and went to
the local Bamboo Hotel called " Hacienda del Mar ", It was beautifull and
well maintained
and even had a huge goldfish pond, along
with " Peacocks" strutting all over the grounds.
We met fellow world A.R.C. sailors
from the yacht " Eowyn" ( british chaps , Graham, John and
Micheal ) and had a pina colada
with them at the hotel.
17.00hrs We arrieved back at " A LADY" and
the skipper did the dinner....A goolash ande rice,, Yum Yum
The thing took 3 hours to prepare and cook, but it
tasted real yummy.
Later we watched a D.V.D. called " crimson
tide " A real boys film about Submarines and full of action,,
Poor Aileen had to go to the Master Cabin and watch
some " Girly" thing on her own , Awwwwww
Later we sat out in the cockpit and admired the
Magnificant starrey sky, so vivid , one felt you could put up your hand and
touch them.
And then of course " Fats" pointed out
the southern cross and lots of other constellations,
The end.....
Signed Stephen Hyde (
skipper)
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