Monday 14th November
It was exciting to welcome Helen and Paul aboard on Saturday evening; they have had a frantic few days leading up to their departure collecting spare parts for us and various other last minute items and also wrapping up things at work.
They were thrust straight away into ARC activities with a ‘Red and White’ party on Saturday and the ARC Parade on Saturday. The ARC team had asked for volunteers from each country to be flag bearers, Vicki managed to hold herself back for about 24 hours before leaping forward, so today’s photo is of her in the parade; she is very proud to be British (despite wanting to remain in Europe!) We were amazed by the diversity of the nationalities in the parade; the countries were organised in alphabetical order according to the Spanish spelling, so we were Reino Unido and were followed by Russia, Ukraine and Sweden.
Helen’s father (who lives in Luxembourg) and his wife, Erika, just happen to be on holiday in Gran Canaria so we hired a car and went off to meet them yesterday afternoon. We had a wonderful, very relaxing few hours in a sea front café/restaurant, with banter batting around between all of us. We did look out to sea and think how this time next week we will be passing by that very spot.
This morning, whilst David and Paul did jobs around the boat, Helen and Vicki went off to see the butcher (J P Rosper) and the greengrocer, Jorge at Fruiteria, (both official suppliers to the ARC) to place our order for fresh produce. They had a very interesting time, sampling meats and cheese and were also given guidance on which products will last well and the order in which everything should be eaten. There are now 20 numbered plastic bags (one for each night at sea) in the forepeak, each of which contains the dry and tinned ingredients for each meal; this should mean that if conditions are rolly, we will be able to find what we need quickly.
Proud times.
Vicki