The Green Dragon, surrounded by lots of local boats, leaving Galway Bay on Saturday afternoon.
The Galway Stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race is over. Perfect organization, perfect weather and some very fancy ships made it almost the perfect festival. I say almost, because the event was marred by a brutal murder on Tuesday night – a young man was stabbed just after leaving a nightclub near Eyre Square. The killing was all the more shocking because there was a large and visible police presence throughout the festival and, despite the copious amount of alcohol consumed during the fortnight, the atmosphere seemed good-humoured throughout.
Volvo Ocean Race boats disappear over the horizon as they leave Galway Bay on Saturday afternoon.
I’ll update the Volvo Race page during the week with more pictures and video. The pictures above were taken from the hill overlooking Silver Strand, where a crowd gathered. The hill is covered in summer meadow, and in the foreground, is Gentian Hill, where even more people gathered. The arrival of the boats heralded a heatwave and ominously, their departure was accompanied by driving rain that eventually sent people running back to their cars. There was a huge traffic jam leaving Silver Strand as the boats disappeared over the horizon. It didn’t matter to me – I’d left my car lights on, and the battery was completely flat by the time I got back. D’oh !!
A crowd? On that hill? I’d have been scared of the whole thing crumbling into the sea with that many people on