Sailing around the World, Sailed around the World ...... The End
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 23 Mar 2011 14:55
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WEDNESDAY 23rd
MARCH 2011.
Thinking back to last Monday, on our way to Port
Louis ( where we are now based ) we had a slow trip, especially from
Tabago to Granada, we actually had 20 / 25
knots of wind from our Stb quarter , we had the engine running as well, and we
were still
only doing 7 knots over the ground, because we had
a 2.5 knot current against us, can you imagine that,
If we had a 2.5 knot current against us back home ,
we would think we were in a tide race, yet here we are out in the middle
of the ocean with such a current, frustrating ,
We crossed the finish on Tuesday morning at
05,49,46 hrs ( Recife time ) 0r 04, 49,46 local time,
This is one leg that we will not be on the list of
prizes, we used the engine so much we only had 250 L of fuel left in our tank
when we arrived, ( The tank holds 1040L 0f fuel, or
1 ton ) while many other boats managed to use very little engine time.
It just happened that the currents and winds were
all over the place, and some boats were in the right place at the right time,
we were not one of those,
Again, going back over the last six weeks or so,
just a couple of days before we arrived in Salvador, we began to use the engine
for long periods, like days at a time, We were not
used to this,
Since then , we must have motored or motor sailed
1,500 or 2,000 miles in all, especially from Salvador to Recife, where we nearly
used 3/4 of a tank
of fuel for a distance of only 450 miles ,
Anyway, Paul from " Rally Control " came out and
met us just at the harbour entrance in a Rib, and we followed him into the
marina,
where there were some staff to help tie us to the
marina, Then we had a couple of welcome drinks from " Rally
Control"
and admired " Starry Night " a navy blue Oyster 82,
which was berthed on the other side of the walkway to us,
this boat was in our home port for a good while and
was used by " Brenie Cahill "
Later in the morning, we met Richard Leonard,
Richard is currently crewing on " Starry Night" along with Skipper Philip
Scully, both
from Crosshaven, Richard and our youngest son "
Stefan " used to sail in " Optimist's " together as yougfellows, small world,
We repositioned the boat for her stay on this
Marina for the next month or so before before going ashore for a break,
the Chandlery has most things skipper needs, and
all duty free, plus the supermarkets have most things we like, ie peanut
butter,
backed beans, chedder cheese, etc, etc. we
also topped up our local sim cards for the mobiles.
We eventually went to " Rhodes" restaurant in the
Calabash Hotel for dinner, and excellent it was too. there we met all the
gang from
" Wild Tigres" who had moored just outside the
hotel and came ashore by rib in the RAIN.
We eventually made
our way back to the marina and read a few emails, one from " Fats" all
about the Cricket and Rugby,and the demise of
the English, Ohh we had such a laugh at what he had
to say, well done " Fats " which reminds us, we have never heard again from
his sisters since he left the
boat, we found that a little
dissapointing, we thought they were interested in the trip, but obviously they
were only interested in their brother and his
exploits, ( I suppose you cant blame them for that )
We are now in our final destination as far as the "
World ARC " goes. so thats it.
Well, for now, thats the end of our Blogs,
For those that read them, we hope you enjoyed them,
For those that dident read them, you missed out on
a fantasy journey.
Finally, we would welcome any comments you have
about the blogs.
Signed :- Stepehn Hyde (
skipper )
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