ARC+ Depart 6th Nov 16
High octane and high drama day today, the ARC+ are leaving Las Palmas and we will be sorry to see them go! We have been here for so long that we have made many friends on our pontoon (R like Romeo); most of them have entered the ARC+, which unlike us, will be stopping at Cape Verde for a few days before continuing their journey to St Lucia. And we are deadly jealous, wish we were going too, apart from the fact that they will be in the warmer sunshine sooner, we will miss them.
There has been a lot of laughter, anxiety and blah blah going on for the last few weeks, helping hands and advice have been many too. The atmosphere is brilliant, we have Italian, Swiss German, Danish, American, Irish, British and even Essex people around us. It is just brilliant, real cosmopolitan feel to it. It has been frantic for the last few days. A continuous stream of fruit and vegs, gallons of water and all sort of boxes of food stuff has been going up and down the pontoon. Buckets have been lined up to rinse and dry up the fruits and veg, gang like lines have been formed to put all these boxes on board. The night before the departure is eerily quiet though, after all the activity of the past few days.
I spend the morning taking crew & boat pictures, saying good bye and wishing every one a good trip. The last preparations are frantic for some and extraordinarily calm for others. People are swinging off the mast, and there is even a makeshift barber set up at the end of the pontoon. Guess you need to look your best on the starting line!
We are going to take Mr X out to wave them off and I have been busy recruiting some volunteers for a nice day out on the sea. We are supposed to have nice weather, sun but not so much wind. The start is at 1pm and we want to be off the pontoon around 11 am so we are well out of the way when most of the 70 participants exit the marina. Music is blaring out and there is a nice crowd building on the jetty outside the marina, where they have set up the music and the flags are being waved. We are just about to go when Jerry the Rigger turns up for his inspection. We were not expecting them today but they assure us that they will be done in time for us to go and see the start. It is just that Ian who was quite chilled (we had all the rigging checked and updated in Rome before we left in June) and looking forward to going for a sail is now worried about the inspection. Sure enough, Jerry finds enough stuff wrong to upset him, a few bits that can be easily resolved but the main issue is the forestay. The furler mechanism was either not put together right or a piece went missing so the forestay has been chewed up and will need to be replaced. It is a bit of a blow, it will not bee cheap and we only have less than 2 weeks to get it fixed.
We finally have all our passengers on board, Monica, friend of Nicklaus and Isabella’s on Nalu, we have Garry, our Australian ginger nut (Ocean Diamond II), Dave (Amazing Grace) or Mr VavaVoum as I like to call him (he has one of these electric scooter) and Paul, friend of John and Margaret (Arcanum) who are leafing today. We are all set to go and as I pull the gangplank onboard, my camera escapes my pocket and falls in the water. Now we are in 6 metre of water, high tide and Ian is not keen to dive, but Garry never missing an opportunity to be a hero, is game. So off he goes overboard. I don’t hold much hope of him retrieving it and even if he does, the camera will probably not work again. It is waterproof but only to 2 metres and it has been down for half an hour already. Obviously I am cursing myself for being so stupid… all the morning’s pictures are almost certainly lost! Garry resurface, empty handed, he can’t keep a straight face though and with a huge grin he pulls my camera out of his swimming trunk! And yes, he was wearing his budgie smuggler… Still, I am so relieved to have my camera’s back that I even forget to make a sarky comment. I will have to be nice to him for a few hours and not wind him up… The camera seems to be functioning and after rinsing and drying I am able to take pictures of the start of the race. The downloading might be a problem but for the moment it is working. As it turns out, all the pictures taken after the dipping in the water are blurred, somehow it had the macro setting on which I did not realise immediately. Saving the day once again, Garry let me have his pictures of the start of the race!
We went around in circle for a little while, trying to identify our friends, but the starting line got busy and we stayed safely away from the melee and the shouting going on. This is serious business and it was a good reminder of what we use to be like on Moonshadow. The shore was lined with onlookers and the fleet with Santa Anna’s cathedral as the backdrop made for a nice picture. The clouds were gathering on the horizon and it looked like we would get wet before the end of the day.
And they were off… wished we were going with them. We followed for a spell and watched them disappear on the horizon before we turned round to get back to the marina. The dark clouds finally burst and we did get extremely wet. Waves of rain came and went between short spells of sunshine. Back on the pontoon, it felt quite desolate without the bustle of the crews coming and going. Ian tried to cheer me up by mentioning that new arrival for our ARC will be coming in soon! And it will be our turn ion 2 weeks time.