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A Lady - Sailing around the World with World ARC



The last blog was on Monday 26th and today as I sit here and look at this computer, I have decided to combine the last week into one blog, thus covering the 8 days since.

Tuesday 27th April We did some early morning jogging, like at 06.00hrs and joined lots of others on the waterside promenade. Later we had the mechanics who serviced the engine and the generator, part of our problem was the dirty fuel we got in the Galapagos. We will have to drain the fuel tank, have it cleaned, and new diesel put on board. What a deal!
 
Wednesday 28th April Donal drove Skipper and Aileen to the golf club, where they had a great game of golf. The last time we played was in Lanzarote and there Aileen hammered the skipper. Revenge is sweet and this time the skipper won by 8 shots. A runaway score (cricket score). Donal collected A & S at lunch time and we returned to the boat to meet the mechanics again who finalized servicing the generator. They did a good job, it is now running much better than it did for the last 8 weeks, but they themselves are not totally happy but we will see how it goes over the next few days.
Prizegiving for the leg between the Galapagos and the Marquesas (3000 miles). A Lady won first prize in her class for the fastest time, and also a prize for Blogs. WOW, that's a new one! We were like the cats with the cream.....
We met Casey from  Wild Tigris who had just rejoined his boat, and had plenty of scoops before retiring to the bunks.
 
Thursday 29th April We had A Lady hauled out for a scrub and antifouling. In the meantime, Donal booked himself into a hotel in Papeete while A & S took the ferry to Moorea, an Island 12 miles from Tahiti and booked into a hotel for the weekend. On arrival we met Oliver Briac, a french man living in Moorea for the last 30 years and started a project called "The Tiki Village" which we visited the next night and was very impressive, displaying all the local dancers and local cultures. We were very impressed, and he will be at the Shanghai Expo with his troop, this is now up and running.
The hotel gave us dinner on the beach, sitting in cane chairs which looked more suitable for a Royal Couple... But then, a fantastic evening! Donal, meanwhile, met up with some of the other crews in Papeete and had a great night. A good day..............
 
Friday 30th April S & A  had a slow start, enjoying a bed that was not swaying all over the place. Skipper took a Kayak and paddled up to Cooks Bay and had a chat with our US friends, while Aileen had some beauty treatment, as women should...meanwhile, back in Tahiti, Donal kept an eye on the work being done to A  Lady and later had a good time with many of the other crews. He is a good networker, and remembers names, which is very important in situations like this... Later, S & A went to the "Tiki Village" for their dancing show. God, what a performance... Those wiggling bottoms on the dolls.. Ohhhhhhh We returned to the hotel and had a couple of hours of local fantastic music... brilliant evening all round. Oh my god ...... Those wiggling bottoms.........will remember them for eternity.
 
Saturday 1st May May Day..........breakfast.... christ, the chef couldn't fry an egg for all the tea in china, the grandchildren would have done a better job!
We did a bit of R + R and then some snorkeling. Later we hired a car and went off for lunch, followed by a trip to Tahia Collins a pearl shop of international fame. We met Matt who is married to one of the girls at the hotel and he used to play rugby, so he informed us that we could watch Munster playing on a local channel at 04.00hrs, which we did ,,, Ohhhhhhh how disappointing....to loose 18 / 7 ......... but thats life, oh feck, the only bright thing left in Ireland and it got zapped........... Maybe the summer will be better than the last few years, and Cork Week will be great and lift the spirits.
 
Sunday 2nd May Shattered after spending most of the night watching the match, Skipper went off and played a game of golf with Bob from Ocean Jasper while Aileen went off to Mass and prayed for Skipper and all the others on her long list. Donal was still enjoying all that Tahiti had to offer... Aileens prayers really worked for him, but the skipper is forbidden to tell, and especially on the blog...  but it will all leak out eventually... but for now, " mum's the word "
We are so stuffed from food that we had just dessert for dinner, and at that it was too much, we will turn into monsters if we keep going like this... But then, this is such a fantastic place... why not?
Forty shades of Green. This Island of Moorea must have 50 shades... We have said so often how beautiful each place is, and we have run out of words to describe the beauty, but Moorea is really special, and we really enjoyed our few days here... even if it was bloody expensive..... €10 for a G&T, so add up the rest...!
 
 
Monday 3rd May Up really early, breakfast, and shared a taxi to the ferry with an american couple, from Chicago, and on their honeymoon. They were off to "Tikaheu" which was the last Island we had visited before sailing to Tahiti. We filled them in on all the bits and they thought we were the "berries". Back at the boat yard, we met Donal who was lord of the manor and had everything under control, well as much as possible. A Lady was launched at 12.00hrs and after some radio work by the man himself, we got clearance to to proceed to marina tahina south passed the airport, this took 2 hours and after much manoeuvering at the marina, we eventually were secured, stern on, to the marina. Aileen vanished as soon as we put out the gang plank, (as women will do)  and left the tidying up and filling the water tanks to the boys. Donal got a touch of sun stroke and had to take an early siesta. Later when Donal recovered and Aileen returned from where ever, we went to the "Pink Coconut" and had a few drinks with the crew from Destiny and this was followed by a magnificent meal ( french style ) in the same place. A couple of scoops on board before retiring to the bunks for ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
Tuesday 4th May Another beautiful in paradise. Aileen shared a taxi with the crew of Destiny to Papeete, while Donal went to the local Carrafour and did some shopping. He really loves that, and likes to do it on his own. Reminds us of his comment that the best committee is made up of 3 people, 2 of whom are always sick and never attend meetings, I like that myself. Meanwhile, skipper does some boat work, including fixing the fly screen in the forward cabin, cleaning the bilge under the Galley floor and the fan in the galley. We had Cyprian replace on the top of the mast the VHF ariel, and the radio seems to be working much better, getting a range of 18 miles as we tested it with Jennius as they were just going into Moorea on the far side. So we are happy with that for the moment, bit by bit, we are making progress. Later, the skipper got about fixing the Davitt. We had got the parts from "Cooney Marine", actually they sent most of the parts
and only for some improvising, the job would never have worked. They sent parts we never asked for, and letf us short bits we requested. But then as we always say, that's boats!
Later, Donal cooked a Lamb Dinner. It was one of the best dinners on board so far, (God I hate to admit it) but it truly was... even the roast potatoes were fantastic and his gravy was out on its own, fantastic... and we are really not into gravy, just Fats, god love him, but overall it was just brill... well done "Fats"!
 
That's it for now,
 
Stephen Hyde (Skipper) 

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