The Final Countdown
ULA
John & Jackie Richards
Sat 22 Nov 2008 23:57
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The start gets ever nearer and the last two days
has seen the Ula crew putting in a massive team effort to get us ready for
the off. Yesterday saw the delivery of the fresh fruit and veg which all needed
removing from its packaging, washing and stowing on board. John and I went off
to Puerto de Mogan to pick up Jenny from her sailing course and returned to find
everything sorted, boxed or hanging up in nets above the saloon table guarded by
our new crew member Rodney (photo to follow). Meanwhile Howard had also manfully
volunteered to run the gauntlet in the marina launderette (an interesting
logistical exercise with 3 washing machines serving 1300 ARC crew
members!?!) and all laundry had been washed and was hanging out to
dry along the guardrails-including my knickers! Apparently having a
wife and three daughters back home means he is quite comfortable with ladies
underwear!? Andy C and Cazababe had been tasked with some last minute shopping
for the 'hard to find' items and returned mission accomplished
and Jenny had really enjoyed her sailing course. So apart from
struggling and failing to squash all our frozen vacuum packed meat from El
Corte Ingles into the freezer compartment the day was pretty
successful.
In the evening we had a fantastic meal with the
Libertad crew at La Buena Vida, a restaurant we had found while here in October.
The staff there remembered us and looked after us fantastically
well. By the time we left everyone seemed to know we were involved in
the ARC and several other people in the restaurant were asking us all
about it. We left with many hugs, kisses and good wishes - a memorable
night!
Today we have had to clean up the boat, stock up
with some last minute food items, two more cans of diesel and various
medicines/first aid items for the trip. John and Adrian attended the final
Skippers briefing and at lunch time we all headed off to the Club Nautico for
their Menu del Dia lunch. A three course meal and a glass of wine for an
amazing 8euros! The rest of the time has been spent planning the final
jobs for tomorrow morning and a bit of retail therapy. We are now all really
wanting to get an early night but are waiting for the Farewell Fireworks at
midnight. As they will be set off over the marina we have no chance of party
pooping and sleeping through although John and Andrew are currently doing their
best!
There are several awards for this
blog:
Happy Shopper award to Caza and Andy for
managing to locate 4 bottles of Robinsons barley water in El Corte
Ingles!
Clean Laundry/Unabashed award to
Howard for services to boat hygiene and
ladies underwear.
Domestic God award to Adrian
for consistenty excellent washing up
Sailing Survival award to Jenny for becoming a
'competent crew'
Ingenuity award to Andrew for successfully getting
five pirate swords through airport security and a further Eeyore award
for currently snoring like a donkey while waiting for the
fireworks!
We are all ready for the off and looking forward to
finally getting going tomorrow. The weather forecast at the moment appears to be
reasonably good for four days. Wind somewhere between 8-18 knots and swell
initially around 1.5metres.
Many thanks to everyone at home who has been
emailing and texting us with their good wishes - it's been great to
hear from you all and to know you are thinking about us and will
be following our progress!
Signing off for now. Hopefully our next blog will
be 'en passage'
Jackie
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