Thursday/Friday, Aug 14-15, 2014 –
A few drops of rain, but only a few, fell in the morning. That may sound odd, but we have not seen rain since Horta two months ago. “The Rain in Spain” does NOT mainly fall on the plain–or anywhere else in Spain during the summer… We had heard a blanket statement that it does not rain in July or August which we thought was a joke. It was not. We had some cloud cover, which was a relief from the heat and sun, but almost no rain. It just managed to take the humidity to 100 percent with the temperature over 90 degrees. No wonder they siesta from 2-5 pm in the hottest part of the day.
This city must have done a serious siesta yesterday because they started partying in the evening and went until dawn today. Today is Friday and it is a national holiday that begins a 10-day hoopla for the region. As they tell us, they work to live and Americans live to work. They may have it right! 
What were sedate cafes by day had colored strobe lights, music and crowds of drinking folks having a great time…and they partied ’til the cows came home. Unfortunately, for nearby boaters that was about 6:30 this morning. Everything shut down for about three hours, and then the sedate cafes opened up once again.
Quintessa is tied up along the city quay in front of those restaurants and cafes. Everyone walks along and stops to check out the boat. Many people have taken photos. The American flag is truly foreign here and we believe people are very surprised to see it. The question everyone has asked is whether we crossed the Atlantic all the way from America and how long it took.