Position           28:07.72N 015:25.51W

Date                2359 UTC Sunday 7 November 2010

Our apologies to our regular readers for the information blackout for the last three weeks; we really have been rather busy and are looking forward to the easy business of sailing across an ocean.  Normal service will be resumed after Sunday 21 November when we leave Las Palmas at the start of the 2010 ARC.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION – so that it does not get lost in the bulk of this diary entry – if you wish to track us using the ARC site, which is updated automatically every 6 hours log into www.worldcruising.com/arc .  This uses a tracking device which the ARC organisers are providing for all boats this year for the first time.

Well, what have we been up to?  Week one was filled with jobs on the boat, spending large amounts of euros on boat bits thought necessary and chasing parcels being shipped to us.  Getting parcels has probably been the most frustrating part of the whole time here.  We still have one parcel still outstanding for four weeks; Parcelforce managed to get it to Madrid only to have it returned to the UK for reasons that are inexplicable.  This parcel, which contains amongst other things various parts to rig our cruising chute, is now with UPS and has spent since last Friday at Las Palmas airport; every day it will be delivered tomorrow without fail.  You get the general idea.

The bicycles have been in very regular use and make all of the difference as the distances between boat, chandlery and most important the department store ‘El Cortes Ingles’ are not inconsiderable and would take for ever to walk.

During the week a large part of the marina was emptied of non-ARC boats.  We felt sorry for those live aboards who were shoved out to anchor to make room for us, however, when you see what has been achieved to get 250 boats into the marina mostly together it is very impressive.