Gran Canaria - Waiting for the off

Roysterer
Peter & Penny Hesleden
Fri 23 Nov 2012 18:12
Its been a hectic time since the last blog with boat checkovers and provisioning for the crossing.  It's amazing how much stuff we need for  a planned 3 week crossing - by the time we've planned for the extra time we might take and factored in possible breakdowns and emergency provisions.
 
I can't do a blog here without mentioning the constant whirl of socialising.  In the main people here are friendly and open.  We are moored between 2 great boats; Scarlet Oyster a 1987 Oyster Lightwave 48 who actually won the racing division last year and Distant Shores (Paul $ Sheryl Shard do sailing travel documentaries which are shown on Sky Travel).
 
We have a third crew member now; Xavier who is a 27 year old Argentinian travelling back to Argentina.  There are a lot of people still trying to get places here but most boats are already committed.
 
Tonight we are going to the farewell cocktail party hosted by the Gran Canaria Tourist Board, all the sponsors have been hosting events, this will be the second event hosted by Gran Canaria, the first one was very lavish.  It is now getting close to going, our adenaline is rising and you can feel the tension all along the pontoons.  Sunday is not long now.
 
Happy birthday to Mark and Stephen who are 23 today.
 
The photos show one normal picture of Xavier and one of him dressed up to go to the ARC fancy dress party.  We have added some pictures of some of our new friends as a reminder to us of this ARC time in Gran Canaria.
 
Our next blog will be mid-Atlantic via the satellite phone and our next pictures won't be until we get to St Lucia.
 

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