Wow what a first week…
Firstly we did not receive a warm welcome and had to endure a very rude marina attendant supposedly helping us to more stern too with no finger pontoon. It was like the parting of the waves to squeeze us in between the 2 boats and then we had the added complication of a pile directly behind us. The meant that we couldn’t physically get off the boat which was rather inconvenient. We were also concerned that we might damage equipment on the stern ie the solar panel and wind generator. The ARC office were unable to help our dispute and fortunately a friend on Salsa came to the rescue by lending us a plank to get ashore. I was not overly happy with the berth but it is on the kids pontoon so the boys overruled me and we have stayed put.
Day one was check in at the ARC office where we were overleoaded with information and booked seminars and times for safety inspection. We were fortunate to pass this the next day first time, so all my reading the rules paid off. We also went to our first sundowners happy hour where a free drink can be enjoyed with a chat with others from 6.30pm to 8pm . We all headed back to Mad Fish afterwards for some crusty bread, cold meats, prawns. This was another enjoyable evening with the bears. Ethan and Harry fell asleep watching a dvd so everyone stayed up later than intended.
Day 2 saw the first ARC party. These start between 8 and 8.30pm . We decided to skip sundowners and enjoy a chilli on Intrepid Bear who were mored next to the party. We wandered up and enjoyed free wine and live music. We then ended back on Intrepid for a nightcap and then stumbled back to Mad Fish at 1am . This obviously resulted in a massive hangover the next day.
Day 3 – Can’t really remember anything important happening, but we did decide to not attend any drinks parties…
Day 4 – went to a seminar on weather routing by Chris Tibbs and told all the different things we could expect. The squalls, tropical storms, hurricans etc… everything to put your mind at ease! Sometimes I am a firm believer that ignorance is bliss. Then I went to the provisioning seminar for more tips and doom and gloom about just how much food we should take and how we should remove labels from tins, wash fruit and double bag pasta for fear of creepy crawlies invading. This is guaranteed to make provisioning an even more painful experience than it already is. We are also convinced that as we haven’t been doing any of this so far that we probably have the creepy crawlies anyway. Apparently cockroaches like cardboard so we wonder if toilet rolls and kitchen rolls are ok or if we have to remove them. Apparently we should also have food that doesn’t need cooking in case we have a gas problem, not sure how tasty M&S tinned chicken curry will be cold and hope I never have to find out. I guess it is good to think about these things, but equally it can scare you to death. Unfortunately in our haste to meet a deadline I fell off the plank and this caused the most massive bruise ever. I still have a massive dent in my leg a month later!
Day 5 was Friday - We went to plant a tree as a volunteer on the ARC forest project. This is a not for profit making organisation that is trying to restore a lot of lost forests. We enjoyed a bus tour up into the mountains and then a very steep 20 minute walk followed by a lot of hard digging. It was definitely a workout. The kids and adults thoroughly enjoyed it and the view was spectacular, we could even see Tidie in Tenerife. Sara and I decided to go and check out Carrefour in the afternoon and I bought all the flour for bread, cakes and biscuits. We enjoyed a well earned beer.
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