Prior to the departure of World ARC 2023-24 from Galapagos to the Marquesas tomorrow, it was a great privilege for the children in the fleet to be able to join in with the local summer school in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz.
The start of their holidays here on the island provided the perfect timing for the World ARC children to meet and share their adventures with 11 of the local children. It was thanks to Yanis and Michele for welcoming everyone to the library where the World ARC children were asked to join in with their morning circle chats. Beginning with some simple sign language to indicate if you agree or disagree, plus a few signs to indicate some rules, all the children were soon fully engaged.
All the family boats in the fleet were present to include Swedish boats, Blue Sunshine and Sara of Sweden along with Pachamama from Argentina and Marororo from Mexico. With many of the children able to speak both English and Spanish, they were individually asked to tell their name and think of a fruit or vegetable starting with the first letter of their name. Proving to be a lot of fun for everyone, including adults, the best name had to go to “Harald the Hamburger” on Blue Sunshine. It was met with lots of giggles.
Displaying a map of the world next, the World ARC Children were asked to show everyone where they had sailed from in Europe and where their next destinations are going to be. Coming from such a small island, the local children were fascinated to hear they will reach the shores of Australia, which at this stage seems a very long way away for everyone.
After an hour chatting in their circle, it was big thanks to Maroro who kindly agreed in return to host the local children on their boat. Being a Lagoon 53, they had ample space to welcome the local children onboard to include their own 3 boys. Reaching the boat by water taxi it was such a huge adventure for the group. Once onboard Maroro, Ander, Jokin and Kai (boys on Maroro) kindly showed them around their cabins and their precious toys and collections.
After such excitement everyone gathered in the cockpit whereupon owners Imanol and Annie patiently answered many questions and also explained the long journey ahead of them to Marquesas. After a 20-minute chat it was time to enjoy the decks for some further fun. Bursting with such excitement one little boy summed up the morning’s activities by shouting “Es fantástico!”
The fleet are in their final 24hrs of preparations before the long sail to French Polynesia and the world beyond.