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Tulla Mhor - Day -6 Lots of Parties



Gosh, feeling exhausted. Haven't been to so many parties since freshers week and that was some years (decades) ago. 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 11.00am, there is a drinks party every evening at 6.30 and lots of great parties.

We started off on Friday with a farewell for ARC+ and welcome to the ARC party. This was hosted by the Las Palmas city council and had a fantastic percussion band and great dancers not to mention the glamorous transvestites. The dancers were carnival dancers with large sparkly headdresses and boy could they dance. Made us all keen to get into the Caribbean rhythm.

The ARC+ left the following Sunday. It was quite a rainy day with some torrential downpours at the start so although we walked along to watch we became totally drenched and needed to take refuge. I had left a hatch open on the side of the boat and a small locker under the window had become full of water. I had left some spelt and pearl barley which were from home and still not used. As Dugald said "a blessing in disguise".

There are sundowner drinks every evening and another party hosted by the main chandlery shop. I think we have spent enough there to justify making full use of the bar. Again a great band and dancing. A red and white party was the following night.

It is not all play and we have been working hard to prepare for the crossing. I have been stressing about the provisioning, planning enough food to last us 3 weeks without reverting to pasta and pesto every night. Hope I have got it right but I am sure we will not starve. We have been to seminars to refresh our knowledge, endless shopping. It is amazing how much you can spend on things you hope you will never need!

Hugo, one of the crew, and his friend Jamie arrived on Thursday. Hugo is Lou's nephew and is young and enthusiastic. He has a photography degree so hopefully I may pick up some tips. I think they have been enjoying themselves and certainly they have met lots of people.

On Thursday evening we took a taxi down to the old town where there are lots of bars close together for drinks and tapas. The street is thronged with young students and music and dancing, a really great vibe. We went to a few bars and really liked a very traditional bar where the waiters were carefully carving hams.

Continuing with boat chores, need to put the mainsail back on but now we have a young helper should be a lot easier.


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