We’re now on countdown to Sunday’s start and everyone is busy with final checks and boat preparations. Hundreds of crew members have flown in over the weekend and the docks are lined with suitcases and boat parts. There’s a wonderful atmosphere as people compare their preparations and the nightly sundowners and crew dinners taking place this week are a brilliant way to catch up with fellow sailors at the end of the day.
Val Glen from Arcona 430
Tulla Mhor has been blogging about their time in Las Palmas so far and compared her experienced to being at university for the first time, “
The atmosphere of the ARC is a bit like freshers week; the newbies (us) are all excited at being away from home (waters) for the first time; the old hands (senior students) are providing calming words and looking cool; lots of lectures informing us of potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. You can go up to complete strangers and ask them all about themselves, their boat and how they got here and everyone is friendly, open and accepting. People are drinking in the sailors (union) bar from 11.00, there is a drinks party every evening at 6.30 and lots of great parties.” It sums up quite well the ‘work and play’ experience of the countdown days to the start.
The comprehensive ARC seminars are an invaluable resource on offer to participants to guide their preparations and Jerry ‘The Rigger’ Henwood’s seminar kicked off today's programme at the Hotel Santa Catalina. Jerry, who has sailed all his life, runs his own rigging business from his workshop in Gosport, England and is just one of several highly experienced ARC lecturers who come out each year to offer practical support and useful tips. His entertaining talk was followed by Chris Tibbs who has sailed around 250,000 miles and is a top meteorologist. Chris’s talks today included Management of Emergencies at Sea and Tips for Downwind Sailing. There’s still time for participants to book in for one of his popular hands-on sessions on setting up and using a sextant.
Clare Pengelly has been involved with World Cruising Club for a decade, both as staff and as a participant in the events. A passionate sailor, Clare has crossed the Atlantic with the ARC three times, and sailed on several ocean stages of World ARC. Clare has a near-obsession with finding out about the perfect way to provision a boat for offshore passages and her endless experience of the top places to provision throughout Las Palmas is really useful as the boats prepare. Local butchers, grocers and drinks companies make a special effort to make provisioning easy for participants, including packaging perishables to ensure that they last as long as possible on board and offering an order and boat delivery service. This, together with Clare’s top tips, means boat crews will be eating well all the way to Saint Lucia.
After absorbing all this useful information, crews can head to the nightly sundowners. Yesterday evening, Admiral Marine Insurance hosted a buzzing happy hour under the supermoon, and celebrated 21 years of partnership supporting the ARC. Crew suppers are taking place too - these are always an enjoyable evening with a three course dinner and split depending on boat names giving the opportunity to meet a variety of different people.
With 5 days to go till Sunday's start the work and play continues this week with plenty on the ARC programme to send off ARC participants relaxed and well prepared.