A different time scale

Axelle and JB, highly recommended boat-stoppers, Las Palmas

I don't know why, but it appears that people on boats live on a different time scale. We were supposed to spend 4 days in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and it's been a week and one day now. And even if there is a good chance that we're going to head to Cabo Verde tomorrow at the crack of dawn, it feels both like we just arrived and that we've been here forever. Each of us started his/her little rituals, we met neighbors, we have our favorite boat-hickers passing by every so often, our favorite panaderia (merci, Pierre for daily delivery) and our favorite ice-cream place. It's like we've been here for years, setting up a nice quiet life on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Las Palmas de G. C. is nothing extraordinary I must say, even if there is definitely some charms in the crowd hangin' around. First, people are smiley, friendly and rather helpful. Second, the harbor is full of blue water sailors and boat-stoppers which definitely is not what you meet every day in the street of your hometown (except if you live in Las Palmas G. C., obviously). We told you a couple of time about the blue water sailors, so let's focus on the boat-stoppers, they are a very exciting species.
 The usual boat-stopper is a young, long-haired, hippie-looking male or female. Friendly (very), naive (a little), cool (yo' man) and bare-footed most of the time. They play music on the beach at night, they have sandy sleeping bags (this is an assumption since we didn't try the sleeping bags). They pass by every other day on the pontoons to look for boats that would need an extra hand on the way to the Caribbean. They're ready to do everything on board. Most of them have never really set a foot on a boat,  but they're ready to try. There are individuals but there are a lot of couples, too. They're a huge part of the general feeling of Las Palmas' Darsena Deportiva and they make you feel like you've really gone to some exotic country even if you're still in Europe. As a bonus, they play various kind of musical instruments which are not really instruments but rather "you see, man, it's my way of life, it's my grove, it's my spiritual expression. I can play music for you during the sailing to relax you and make you happy. And develop your inner self..." Yeah, for three weeks in a row with no way of escaping...hum... let me think...