No flag, no country!

~~~

Keith, Louie, Tom, Galina, Mark, Zhenya, and Barry

On Sunday, Crew and Captains of all ARC participant boats paraded around the shark-infested harbor in a display of international cooperation that made the U.N. look like a dysfunctional and archaic entity. Ahem.

Many of us, including the crew of Maverick Dream, did not promenade together. Instead, we each walked under the flag of our home country. In our case, Tom and Louie held the flag of the Netherlands.


Tom and Louie

Zhenya and Galina represented well their homeland of Russia.

Galina and Zhenya

Mark was asked to do the honor of carrying the European Union flag, and Barry (England by birth, Malta as his home, with 36 other addresses in his career) joined him.


Mark (with EU flag) and Barry (waving)

I walked with the Americans, or, fat people. We all made the circuit around the harbor in grand fashion, along with proud countrymen from countless other countries.


Tum tee tum can you seeeee

Ze Germans

The parade was not long, but it was filled with the spirit of the ARC event. All of us have been busy preparing for the long journey westward, and the anticipation is palpable. Each time we met a new person, we were greeted with a real smile and a firm handshake. There is a subtle message in each of these encounters; we are all well aware that, should we get into a difficult situation at sea, the closest of any one of these people would come to our aid. And vicé versa. That was the serious side of this display. The other, much more overt side of it was an iteration that these are people who love to live, and know how to laugh - except Sean and Xavier (they know what they did).

Once the parade ended, we gathered and held a flag raising ceremony.

The band played on, while a skinny Santa Clause (or two) threw flour in the air and a group of Vikings tussled amongst a throng of pirates. This was foreshadowing of the Grand Dinghy Race that was about to begin.

The object of the Dinghy Race, as far as we could tell, was to cheat, swindle and befuddle your way to an ill-defined finish line in the water. The first one to do so ... was declared nothing ... as no declarations were made. Mostly, it was a chance to put others into the tainted waters before they could do the same. While these high jinx were ongoing, many of us had already started remembering all the work that must be done before we could begin the audacious undertaking of piloting a floating camper across one of the planet's largest bodies of water.



Today has been about that very business. We attended a seminar on boat rigging, picked up hardware, flares, and a spare bucket from the boat shop, cruised the grocery store for preliminary items (more compete food details later), and arranged for the long-overdue purchase of a new dinghy for the Maverick Dream. This week of preparation seems like the team bus ride to a big game. There is an abundance of enthusiasm, but we are all checking our gear and making mental reviews of the play book.

~~~