It was a free day today, so we could have had a lie in. However, knowing the toilet & shower situation and as our normal waking up time is well before seven, we thought we’d get up and try to be if not first, then at least the queue wouldn’t be too long. As it happens we were first and had a perfectly nice shower, 50c gives you 6 minutes and as there is a start/stop button, there is oodles of time as you can stop the water flow when soaping up.

James Littlewood on Paddington V has been acting as the rally’s photographer and he’d prepared a slide show of the best photos to date, to which he invited people over to have a look. We went soon after 10 and very much enjoyed seeing the photos. Eventually he will put them on Dropbox or something similar so that we all can access them.

Photos over we went into the town to look around and have a coffee and when that was done, we headed back to the boat for lunch, a relatively early one as we wanted to walk to the beach which is at the mouth of the canal entrance. We’d decided that as it was such a hot, gorgeous day, we ought to swim. However, as we were just heading out with towels etc, we passed a group of rallyers who said that the water, whilst warm, wasn’t that inviting as it was a bit green looking, so we asked Keith Churchward (Keith & Pat, Lapwing) to drop our towels back on the boat as he was heading that way. We’d just finished chatting when an elderly German couple went past and struck up a conversation with us, indeed we chatted with them all the way to the beach. They had sold their property and were now living in rented accommodation, one in Grand Canaria (for the winter) and the other in Germany (near Berlin). They were enjoying their new lifestyle and had no regrets on selling their home.

The beach was quite crowded and the sea was full of people. We decided to at least paddle and yes, the water was easily warm enough for us to have swum but it was murky, so we had no regrets over our decision. We decided we’d have a drink so went to one of the cafes, where coincidentally Andy and Philippa Hobden were, so we joined them and later walked back with them. We needed to get back as the plan for the evening was to gather in the square near the town’s railway station and to bring our own food and extra to share. We decided to cook the spatchcock chicken and make some salads and so on, so time was needed for the chicken to cook.

At 18:00 we duly went to the square but there was a problem, from our point of view, there was nowhere to sit apart form on some steps and the only flat surfaces that served as tables were already full, so we couldn’t contribute our food. Moreover, people were already eating and this was too early for us so we decided, with Calypso, to join forces and eat later on board her. We could therefore concentrate on mingling, which we did until about eight o’clock, whence we retired to Calypso and devoured the chicken plus some pork that Richard had barbecued and of course, the salads. That, washed down with copious wine and Gill’s excellent damson & sloe gin, followed by a glass of Jameson and a cup of coffee, meant that we were pretty ‘relaxed’ by the time we departed. In fact, had I not been so ‘relaxed’ I probably would have declined Paddington V’s invitation for a nightcap… Thank you James & Carol!

One final point. I asked Eugene Osborne on Arnica what the significance was of their defaced Irish ensign. The image on the flag is that of a goat’s head and he explained that it meant that Arnica belonged to the Skerries Yacht Club. The story behind the goat is that St Patrick was reputed to live in those parts and he kept some goats on the islands ie the Skerries. He told the locals that on no account should they harm his goats whilst he was away converting folk but his warnings were ignored and one of the goats became Sunday lunch. Upon his return he was so furious that he punished the people by depriving them of speech, allowing them only to bleat like goats! I believe he calmed down after a time and gave them their voices back but of course the remaining goats were guaranteed a long life!