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A Lady - Sailing around the World



Sunday, 27th February 2011    (Annabel's Birthday, 1 year old)
 
The wind was fine on the Stb bow all night, blowing between 20/25 knots. The seas were bumpy and progress was slow, real slow, 3.5 knots at times. We passed again many fishing boats (even at 25 miles off shore) and saw 4 gas or oil rigs, burning off their excess fumes.
 
08.00hrs Distance traveled in 46 hours.....................307 miles
              Distance to destination..............................142 miles
 
The information about the Ireland v Scotland on yesterdays blog was incorrect, and delighted to report that today Ireland defeated Scotland in the six nations cup.  
 
We tried in vain our hand at fishing again today, but lost half the lure. The weather was just beautiful during the day, a little hot. Around 2 pm, the wind shifted more to the east and we had a 60 degree angle, so we shut down the engine and had a great sail reaching a speed of 8 knots over ground. Thats too fast for what we need. as we will not make the high tide tonight and we do not want to be too early for the midday high tide tomorrow. We need the high tide to get over the sand bar at the entrance to the Yacht Club.
 
17.00hrs We took in 3 reefs in the headsail and 2 reef in the mainsail, just trying to slow down, but this is beautiful sailing and we both enjoyed it very much. Aileen cooked a Spanish Omelette, yum, yum, for dinner.
 
Later, the wind vanished, so we went to start the engine once more, but the engine batteries were dead (gawd, us and batteries). There are two 12v batteries specifically for starting the engine, and the generator has its own one. And we will need the engine to get into Recife.
 
Skipper opened up the battery box, hooked up the engine terminals to the generator battery, then started the generator first, and then the engine. Bingo, it all worked, the end of the crisis!
 
Now, are the engine batteries finished also! Ohhhh, what next, there is always something, thats boats!
 
As it gets dark here at 6pm on the nail and bright at 5am in the mornings, it tends to be an early long night. We took turns in keeping watch, especially with all the fishing boats around plus the ships scooting along to their various destinations. We counted 18 fishing boats at one stage, just out to the east of us where the sea bed went from 35m to 2,000m in a short distance. It is obviously the place for the fish.
 
By 6am this morning (Monday) we were only 13 miles from our destination, with a reduced speed of 4.6knots.
 
That's it for today,
 
Signed :-   Stephen Hyde   ( Skipper )

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