Friendly voices tapping from the pontoon woke us at 10.30am! I have never known Simon to sleep so long. How wonderful to be woken by Debs and Al from Sunboy, such lovely friends who I’ve been constantly thinking of since Las Palmas. We came to with coffee and cake and relived our experiences thankful that everyone was here safe and sound.

   It was a day of visitors and pottering with no urgency to the tasks in hand. It didn’t matter that the heap of laundry occupied most of the saloon and Brindabella was still far from straight by evening. We have had to assume the attitude of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ in our new berth which is right next to the entertainment area in the marina. This is the venue for not only our ARC program but much of the local entertainment. An open air stage sits to one side of a gravelled area circled by stalls where clothing and local cuisine was being prepared for the evening. Reggae style Christmas tunes blared from the speakers during sound checks and I feared Simon may go mad, the lover of Christmas that he is. Behind us is the main road with bikes performing wheelies and cars racing past with reggae pounding from the in-car discos.

   Tonight’s event was ‘ARC in the Park’ with live music and a DJ: We joined them. Grabbing rum punch from a bar stall packed with locals the music vibrated through our bodies and the aroma of jerk chicken whet the appetite. We met up with Sunboy and Liberty and feasted on rice and peas with jerk pork washed down with local beer; delicious! We were still in party mood when the band finished and with Sunboy now heading back to bed, Suin and co from Liberty came back for more drinks and nibbles. It was a late night after lots of fun with lovely friends.