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Free Spirit - Log 25: 10 June 2015



I went to bed early Monday night in preparation for a 0600 start next morning. The crew went to a strip club. Not all  - I'll leave it to the reader to guess which ones. Some, not all, did manage to emerge from their bunks at dawn, eyes bleary and bloodshot from insufficient sleep, too much intoxication and seeing things they shouldn't, to lend a hand getting out of port. This was tricky because we were hemmed in by other boats and the wind was blowing at 20 kts but we made it without mishap and are now back on the open sea with just over 900NM to go to the Strait of Gibraltar.

One of the attractions of Angra, in addition to its rich history, the beauty of its buildings - and its strip club - is the bull fight, which takes place, somwhat incongruously, at a round-about in a relatively modern-looking suburb of the town. Local young bloods dice with death in a game of tag with enraged animals goaded into frenzied hatred of all humans and desperate for revenge. Meanwhile, street vendors ply their trade and there is a kind of tense jollity spiced up by the possibility of real bloodshed. The Roman games must have been much like this. Not that the animals in this modern version are killed. Once exhausted they are cajoled into boxes and loaded onto the back of a lorry to be taken away - who knows where or for what? When we were there certain members of the FS crew did venture onto the street to demonstrate their bravura in the face of real and present danger. They were the same ones that later went looking for thrills and excitement in the establishment of ill-repute. Nobody was seriously hurt on either occasion but comparisons between the Free Spirit odyssey and those that must have taken place in ancient Roman times is becoming uncanny.

Log authored by Peter.


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