Sailing around the World ( Presently at sea on our way to Australia )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 17 Jul 2010 11:41
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SATURDAY 17th JULY
2010
00.00hrs We have 75 miles to travel to the first
waypoint on the sailing instructions, this waypoint is positioned to keep the
fleet
away from " reefs D'Entrecasteuz " a very
nasty collection of reefs,
The wind is basically all over the place for us,
one minute it is directly behind, the next minute it could be ahead or on the
beam,
and of course when it went behind us , we set up
goosewinging, that lasted all of 15mins, before we had to take it down
again,,
well blow us down, but , and theres always a
but, " thats sailing " and of course, this happened in the middle of
the night.
The Moon was small and lying on its back, not a
good sign..
We could see a couple of other yachts behind us,
nothing in front that we could see.
01.30hrs, the wind had increased to 20 knots, but
no matter what we did with trimming, we could not get more than 6.5 knots
,
tis like as if we had an anchor or a bucket tied
onto us, dead in the water,,,,,,,, and were not used to
this...
then, we had a strong current against us so we had
a choppy sea, gosh , not really a good night.
06.00hrs We could clearly see 2 boats behind,
so we got one of them on the radio, it turned out to be " Choi "
pronounced Chow, as in goodbye.
08.00hrs, with 25 miles to the waypoint, we put up
the blue chute again,( Spinniker ) and immidiatly our speed shot up to 8.5 / 9
knots.
We also had lots of rain during the night, just for
good measure.
09.00hrs,, RADIO CALL , every morning
at 09 hrs, there is a fleet radio call, this is to make sure everyone is ok and
give our positions.
plus wind strength, and if we used our engines,
and if so, for how long,
Anyway, it turns out that there are just 2 boats
ahead of us, " Ocean Jasper " and their fellow
american " Crazy Horse " both Sundeer 60's.
a long way ahead, 39 miles , How the hell did they
get that far ahead !
Ohhhh shite,, there is a bloody hole in our
spinniker up high, about level with the top spreaders, and that is where our big
KITE ripped apart,
damn, there must be something up there snagging the
sails,, so we took it down before it got any worse,, oh , not a good
day.
12.00hrs, we had passed our waypoint and set a new
one at the Great Barrier Reef , a mere 715 miles away to the west. we
had
completed 300 odd miles or so, not with any great
record breaking stuff. 150 miles a day...
However the wind was hardning as the morning went
into the afternoon, by 13.00hrs we had 2 reefs in the headsail and 1 reef
in the Mainsail
and we were still powdering along at a steady 9.5
knots, all on a beam reach , exciting sailing and the boat was as
steady as a rock.
This we havent seen before, a pair of Boobies ( the
same as our Gannets ) hovering around the boat for a 1/2 hour or so, scooping up
the
flying fish trying to escape the path of " A Lady
"............. fantastic to watch, grab that
,
Oh, We almost forgot to mention, when skipper
went to the dive center in Port Vila, last monday, to get the diving tank
filled , he asked the boss there
if she would give him, or sell him an adaptor for
his tank, and she said they had none to spare,,
So as he watched one of the men fill the tank, he
asked him the same question, " any spare adaptors ? "
Skipper turned on the " Blarney " again , and next
thing, your man winked , went rooting in a gadgy box, and produced an
adaptor,
saying to skipper, " Say nothing to your one
, or I'll get fired."
God, do you know something, that Blarney stuff is
worth its weight in gold.
All afternoon, the wind was on the beam, ranging
from 28 / 36 knots, and we were loving it all.
We covered 52.7 miles in 6 hours, and just
over 100miles from midday to midnight to night.
Dinner by Scotty, Bangers and mash,
with some lovely carrots, the cheese and onion lamb bangers, were cooked in
onions and garlic, yummy stuff.
all the way from N.Z,
As it was windy and cool, we dined in the "
Royal Saloon "
Night watches
:-
21.00hrs
/ 00.00hrs
Skipper
00.00hrs
/
03.00hrs
Scotty
03.00hrs /
06.00hrs Aileen
06.00hrs
/
09.00hrs Skipper
Thats it for today,
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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