Sailing around the World and avoiding the freezing weather and economy , ( presently at sea )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 12 Jan 2011 07:56
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TUESDAY 11th JANUARY
2011
06.00hrs we have covered 202 miles in the
last 24 hours, thats good going ,
It was a fairley windy night, not to mention the
rough seas, At one stage the auto helm just switched itself off , but did
not cause
us any grief. the last time this happened we
had the KITE flying and the boat gybed as a result and the Kite was
shredded.
Oyster Winter Magazine has been published and there
is an article in it about our first part of the trip around the
World,
Kevin Dwyer says that one can down load the article
from the web on the following address,
09.00hrs RADIO CALL We have
increased our lead on most of the fleet and are level with " Wild Tigress"
although they are 48 miles due west of
us.
The weather was just lovely all day and we really
enjoyed the sail, BUT, but then in mid afternoon, the blinkin E 120 computer /
chart
plotter just went to sleep ....
Alarm bells started ringing all over the boat , and for a few short moments , we
almost had
a serious panick attack. For 15 minutes
we tried in vain to shut down the alarms, we switched off both computers
and turned
then on again, but to no avail. Ohhhhhhhh my
gawd !
Then Skipper could hear " Fats " shouting
across the Oceans ,, " R.T.F.M. " ( read the f***n manual ) so
we dived into the saloon and
dug out the manuals, After pretending to look
intellegent studing the manuals, skipper just turned off all the computers
again
plus all the instruments for good
measure...
Five minutes later , we switched everything on
again, and walla, everything was fully operational once more,
We were as proud as punch for solving such a
catistrofic problem .even if we really
dident know what we were doing.
But,but, that wonderfull thing BUT, We really
know in our hearts , that Aileen was praying behind the scenes and that always
works.
CRISIS OVER, phew , what a relief,
!
No drinks to celebrate, we decided leaving Cape
town that we would stay off the drink for this leg , not even sundowners,
But , We did have some of Collette's
Christmas cake, and it was delicious. Well done Collette and many thanks
.
We had another one of Emily's specials for dinner
and it was excellent,
Following the dinner, we sat and chatted about all
the problems of the world, especially the one of the Irish Government
shutting down our Sugar production, while every
country and small Island we visited on our 27,000 miles so far, all grow sugar
cane,
The sugar beet industry was a great
winter crop for the farmers of ireland and provided plenty of cash for
Santa as a bye product.
Meanwhile , Sham smoked , or rather kept stoking
his " Pipe " We all love the smell of the pipe tobacco, BUT,
but the whole thing does
create a bit of a mess, well you know, the
cockpit and deck tend to look more like a floating " ash tray " in the mornings
rather than
part of a boat, and his clothes are full of burn
holes from trying to ignite the furness in windy conditions,
Night watches................. 21.00hrs
/ 00.00hrs....................Skipper
00.00hrs / 03.00hrs.....................Sham
03,00hrs / 06.00hrs......................Emily
06.00hrs / 09.00hrs.....................Aileen
Thats it for today
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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