Saturday 5th November (but not Bonfire Night for us)
ARC preparations (in conjunction with the ARC+ Farewell) commenced officially last night with a wonderful reception hosted by Las Palmas City Council, with carnival dancers (see photo), drag queens and a drumming band who were ‘conducted’ by a man with a whistle – somewhat reminiscent of Mrs Boyden and the Prince’s Mead staff performance for the children a couple of Christmas’ ago.
David has had an uplifting experience; he needed an M8 tap and there are all sorts of technical shops/chandlers right outside the marina so he wandered around them all but was unable to find what he wanted. Eventually he went into a Yamaha shop, asked the usual question, the man behind the counter didn't speak of word of English but with the aid of diagrams he produced exactly what David was looking for. David asked him how much it was, to which the man replied that it was his own (and a very good quality one at that) which David could borrow overnight. He has taken it back; the man wouldn't accept any money so David disappeared to return with a ‘thank you’ bottle of wine. Would that happen in the UK?
There was another similar language barrier challenge (Fiona, being a fluent Spanish speaker – where are you when we need you?). We needed a spare foghorn, but the local chandlery couldn’t understand what we were asking for. Vicki then did a remarkably realistic (and loud) impression of a foghorn blast, which had the desired effect but the conclusion between us all was that we didn’t really need to buy a new one as we had such an effective human alternative. This incident seemed to brighten up the shop assistant’s day, anyhow.
Vicki has found an excellent supermarket. She was wandering around just trying to see what sort of stock they had when a dedicated 'ARC' shop advisor approached her (clearly she must have looked like a confused tourist). This ‘personal shopper’ was very helpful, guiding Vicki through the 20 different types of bottled water that were on offer etc. Then at the checkout, it was all just loaded into plastic boxes and delivered to the boat. Provisioning isn't going to be a problem.
We have some lovely neighbours. We are moored next to a French couple who are doing the ARC on their own (very hard work, especially on the sleep front); we went across to their boat for drinks on Thursday evening, along with a Canadian and a Frenchman who are about to depart on the ARC+. One boat opposite has a young Philippino crew member who doesn't bother with a bosun's chair – he has been spotted lithely climb up the mast like a squirrel (not strapped onto anything) as far up as the first spreader – a feat Vicki is desperately trying to discourage David from trying to emulate.
Interesting times.
Vicki
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