05.30hrs The wind direction changed so we jybed the boat, or should I say, the spinniker, This was the first time we ever did this on this boat and it proved easier than anticipated . It was just great sailing with the Kite up all night.
06.44 hrs We are Sea now for 24 hrs , so the following is our position. :-
Position ........................................... 18:56 S 172 : 55 W
Wind ..................................................13knots
Speed.................................................6 knots
Sea State............................................Moderate
Total Distance .....................................236 miles
Distance Travelled.................................170 miles
Distance to Travel..................................64 miles
Ohhh, just another beautifull day.... As Fats would say." It would take a lot of this to kill you "
10.30 hrs, the wind got very light, so we started the engine and motor sailed all the way to Vava'u,
12.00 hrs We could see the Island on the horizon,
12.44 hrs Distance travelled ..................................213 miles ( After 30 hrs, ave speed, 7.1 knots )
Distance to go,.........................................21 miles
15.45 hrs We crossed the finish line, the theoretical finish line, and from there proceeded to " Neia'fu " where we were met by Paul from World ARC. Paul had organised all the Officials to give us our clearances on arrival, even though it is a holiday here and overtime has to be paid to all these guys. Beaurocrats are the same the world over and they LOVE all the paperwork........
18.30 hrs when we were finished with the official beaurocrats, we proceeded along to the Yacht Club and found a mooring for our few days here....We tidied up the ship,, made her ship shape in other words, and then lowered the Rib into the water.
19.00hrs We motored into the Yacht Club, where we met our new arrivals.. ......
Aileen, Margaret, and Fats............ all in great form, and delighted to see us and us to see them...There was all the usual hugs and kisses, and the " I love you " bits , and " we missed you so much " things. Wonderfull stuff, Its like getting an injection of Morphine.....
Later , we had a BBQ meal at the Y.C. We have had better, god , a lot better , and the bloody music , lovely . but Soooooo loud,we could hardly hear ourselves talking,,, AND, it went on all night, so on the boat it was like as if they were there with us for the night.
Skipper nearly had a stroke when he saw the blumin CASES the girls brought with them. almost big enough to fit " A Lady " into ! What did ye not understand in :- " all you need to bring with you is a couple of tee shirts and knickers "
Their reply was silence, but the looks said it all, "are you mental boy or something ! " we just brought a few little things, You will have to find somewhere to hide these Monster cases.... Ahhhhhhhhh after all this is a big boat, Ahhhhhhhhh.
AND ..................the Cases were no less " Barbie Pink "
23.00hrs, We had a night cap, and the one for Michelle, and off to the scratchers,,,,, ZZZZZ zzzzz ZZZZZZ zzzz
Donal looks poor enough, very tired looking, and very pale.
Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde. ( Skipper )