The boys mentioned that TMS (the company that did a lot of work for us in Marmaris) left the boat a HUGE mess with tools, trash, and tons of cushions everywhere.  We shocked to learn this as they were wonderful to work for and did really good work (or at least we thought they did).  We had asked TMS to toss the old, green cushions (and we told the boys that they could discard them), but yet they were still on the boat when we arrived in Gran Canarias.  So, we spent today, tossing the green cushions, the excess luggage that we didn’t want anymore and a few other useless items.  Of course, we left them on the curb and they were confiscated by someone else who put them to better use.  The other thing we discovered was that TMS did not do our interior cushions properly.  The main problem is that they didn’t put the wood insert into the bottom of each cushion (you see the cushions lay over storage areas and without the wood insert your tookish sinks in the center of the cushion when you sit down).  The other problem is that TMS did not create the lip around the edge of the cushions to prevent them from sliding around.  It is really only a big deal on one cushion, but irritating that it was not done on any of them.  Always helps to be present when the work is complete – photos do not do the work justice.  The good news is that the cushions look a million times better than the old ones and are very comfy!  We had them made out of Al Contera and they are soft and water resistant (not repellant, but close enough) and they are a beautiful tan color.

Even though the ARC boats left yesterday, the marina is packed with all types of boats.  ARC had 250 participating boats and another 250 boats that followed them.  But there are at least another 250 boats preparing to leave like us in a few days.

During the on board food inventory process we found lots of items that were in foreign languages which made it challenging to figure out the expiration – so when in doubt, throw it away.  Some things we just tossed for fear of having them end up in one of our meals, some products looked too interesting not to try and some packages were deemed just pure “mystery items”.  It appears that Marvin maintains his slim figure by eating cup of soups and lots of coffee – how has he lived to be 72?

Matt, Ron, and I loaded into the small car and heading to Carefore, the grocery store.  We only passed it once, hit a dead end street at the local dump and tried to find an access road back to the highway (they don’t have access roads on the island, it was a dirt road and a dead end).  Carefore is an enormous market and offers food, household items, automotive, sports, and outdoor.  Kind of like a giant Walmart or Super Target.  It is overwhelming.  We decided to start at one end and work our way through but before we got started, Ron was ogling a large pig leg.  I thought, he can’t be serious so I kept walking.  We found almost all of the dry products we needed, including long life milk (regular and low fat), cream, and juice. I love it.  It comes in little boxes that don’t have to be refrigerated – not sure how it tastes, but Ron said it was good, really?  As we loaded up on lunch meats, bacon, chicken, pasta, water, soda and other must have’s I wondered into the snack isle.  I thought I bought too many snacks (chips, cookies, nuts, etc….) and put a few things back.  It was interesting trying to find food items that would last over 25 days for 4 people.  Didn’t want things to get moist in the cabinets and we don’t have much room in the boat size fridge and freezer – it is all trial and error.  We made it out feeling confident that we got what we needed and headed to the check out.  We were very surprised to discover we had only spent a little over 400 € and even more surprised to find out that we got 10% back to spend at another shopping date (that was a 40€ or $68 credit).  Of course, the first thing Ron said was that we should go back and get that pig leg (what, really?)  We left Marvin behind to try to fix the master head (the vacuflush component was flooded when the escape hatch opened during a storm on the first part of the crossing).  Marvin was trying to fix it as there was NO way I was going to share a head with 3 men on the opposite of the boat!  He was not able to fix the head while we were gone, but he did change the oil – that was nice.