We had a good breeze for most of the night, our first night at sea again. However, around 06.00hrs the wind dropped off to 4 knots, so we had to do some motoring. In fact, this went on all day, a good breeze, followed by no breeze.
Its Paul O Sullivan's birthday today, along with Dave o Rielly, Paul is our son-in-law, married to our Daughter Sarah. You will remember Pauls mother and father Collette and Terry ( Fr Terry ) who crossed the Indian Ocean with us on " A Lady "
Dave O Rielly is Skippers brother-in-law, he was married to skippers sister " Deirdre" a dedicated mother, and artist, who always had good things to say and do for the down and outs. However, many years ago, while Dave and Skipper were in the U.K. as part of a boat delivery crew, some B****x cut a tree down on top of her car and killed her instantly.
What brought all this back is Aileens sister " Michelle " plays the piano sometimes in " Ashford Castle " a real posh hotel in Ireland and where Bill Clynton and other famous people stayed while visiting our country. Anyway, a few nights ago, Michelle met by chance Dave's sister Carmel and her husband Micheal who were staying at the Hotel and Michelle was there playing the piano.They had never met before and only by chance realised the connections after some chatting. How small is the World !
12.00hrs, we had travelled just 90 miles since leaving St. Helena last night, real slow progress. lunch was help yourself,
We spoke to " Wild Tigress" on ch 4B on the SSB radio, but we were able to chat to them on the VHF also, as they were only 20 miles ahead of us,
Later, skipper got out the refurbished fishing rod and spent time putting on a suitable lure ( a plastic squid baite ) lets see if we can some fresh fish, 35 minutes later the line was set at about 100m behind the boat.
By the afternoon, the wind had increased and settled down, so Sham and Skipper got out the " Bag of fear" and hauled it aloft, when it set, it gave us an extra 1 knot of boat speed. Our overall speed is poor, but the conditions are good, flat seas, warm and sunny conditions, a bit of sunbathing mixed with charring, and napping, what more could you want. .....................a fish ?
Bang, wzzzzzzzz, wzzzzzzzzzz, wzzzzzzzzz, the rod is bending under the strain of our next dinner, this time we took our time to reel in the fish, at first we thought it was a tuna, but eventually , after a long battle, it was just a " Mahi mahi " a very plentifull and popular fish in the tropics. so out with the plastic sheet ( the operation table on deck ) and the sharp knives and skipper began to fillet this rather lean looking fish. it became evident quickly why the fish was lean looking, his insides were covered in eggs and worms,, yach, yach, a sad end to our fish dinner, but we had to throw him back into the southern ocean and wave goodbye as we carried on our merry towards Brazil.
Meanwhile, we had to resort to plan B for the dinner, Emily cooked a Lasagne for dinner and came with freshly made coldslaw. ohhh, it was all delicious, not a scrap left on any plates.
We made radio contact with " Lady Lisa" and " destiny " who had left St. Helena " at this stage, They had a much better breeze than ourselves. we spoke again briefly to " Wild Tigress" before settling down for our second night at sea.
Around 9 pm a bird settled down also on our stern, actually on the rib, a real comforting sign having a bird passanger for the night. Another beautifull night with a full moon and partly cloudy skies, and the moon will be with us for the whole night,
Thats all for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )