39:08.15N 28:00.74W
Gertha4
Simon Ridley
Thu 26 Jun 2008 19:38
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COG 40 degrees
SOG 5 knts
Dear Blog,
Sorry we have neglected you all for so long.....we
have been enjoying the delights of showers, good food and flushing toilets. I
hope you understand. We intend to fill you in on all the onshore
shinanigans.
Disappointed to find most of our tan's washed off
in the shower we spent our first night getting our bearings, eating chinese and
enjoying some ice cold alcoholic beverages.
Arriving on monday evening we were given a
temporary birth next to "Tide Chase", a crew of three party animals from Wales.
>From their stories it was confirmed what an easy crossing we had had. After
their helm falling off in their hands they resorted to sailing a 43 ft boat
using the emergency rudder, to then lose their auto pilot. During this their
water pumps kicked in. They then lost their long distance communication having
to sought help on the VHF, to find the nearest boat wouldn't take them on and
kept sailing away when they were trying to catch up. In the end a 2200 journey
took them 3300 and a sum total of 24 days.
A crazy mix of characters, Handel was a welsh cheif
inspector of police (retired), good thing as Rigger was a notorius bandit having
been deported from Cuba. John was holding the boat and his crew together.
Understandably we were completely outdone by this bowler hat trio as it seems
they have had three weeks of onshore training/drinking whilst their boat is
being fixed. Rigger also tried to pawn of his son on to us three blondies as he
is the last of four children who is not married. "Robert has never asked for a
penny in his life and has taken over the family business." We reluctantly turned
down the offer but if any one is interested I'm sure we can pass on your
details.
On tuesday night we headed up to festival on a
hill....unfortunately we arrived just as everything was finishing. We managed to
flavour some local cuisine (some sort of bean casserole and black pudding
sausages) before Ian was given the job of ordering some hamburgers....which
turned out to be an ordeal of nodding smiling
waiting......waiting...waiting....... Due to the communication dificulties Ian
decided to nod whenever the vendors said something so after half an hour we
enjoyed a hamburger with anything and everything on it. In the end it was worth
the wait.
During our time in horta the three swedish crew
only managed to attract the attention of one man! More of a stalker
actually...but don't worry mum's he was half our height so if it came to a show
down we would have only had to step on him. In the end I propositioned Ian and
the little fella was gone.
Yesterday we joined in the tradition and painted a
murial on the walls surrounding the marina. Featuring our flying fish and of
course Nigel (who left us last week).
Yesterday we enjoyed a delicious belated birthday
cake that cost a mere 7cents!!! (5pence!!!!!!!) The chocolately chocolate cake
had been conveniently mispriced.
We eventually managed to eat at the ellusive
'Pete's Bar' on our last night where we enjoyed some amazing kebabs and slabs of
steak. All in all we have had a relaxing few days.
The sun is starting to set on our first day back at
sea, with the smell of roast chicken on the go.
Laura and the team xxxxxxx
Lucy and Simon wish Steph a happy birthday for
tomorrow!
Kate sais "Matt please will you wish Jackie good
luck on her three peaks event, and give her ten pounds from me and I'll sort yo
out later......but make sure she does it first."
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