The Tall Ships come to town
In 2010, Hartlepool hosted the Tall Ships. It was a surreal experience. I won’t dwell on any of the negatives. After all, Hartlepool Life is a paper that only deals with positive things about the town.
Fifty-seven vessels sailed into Hartlepool for that weekend of 7th August, transforming the town into an international attraction. In all my years, I had never seen that many people descend on the town to enjoy the sunshine, the hospitality and the sight of some truly magnificent ships.
On Thursday afternoon, the first sailing vessel turned up. A Spanish yacht, the name of which I cannot recall, moored alongside the bandstand by Charlie Chalk’s. Grabbing a few minutes off my busy schedule, I approached it and, from the quayside, in my very basic Spanish, I informed the crew that we had a tapas bar on “Navegacion Punto” if they fancied a taste of home. Unsure whether they had understood a word I said, I went back to work.
A few locals were milling about around the marina. The calm before the storm and that wasn’t the weather as it was pleasant enough for a few hardy customers to dine alfresco.
Friday morning was a massive shock to the system. A multitude of buses poured out hordes of visitors who descended on the marina just after 10 am. Most were pensioners who wanted to use Casa del Mar’s toilets and grab a cuppa. Within thirty minutes the place was swamped with tea drinkers who wanted to be served yesterday as they were on a tight schedule to head for the docks to welcome the Tall Ships.
I strolled over Navigation Point and found that a few of the catering outlets had set up outdoor coffee stations. The Thai restaurant even had a food station right outside with chafing dishes filled with fragrant curries and various kinds of rice and noodles. After a chat with our managers, we decided to get ready to serve hot beverages and Sangria for the rest of the weekend.
Two of the Spanish boat crew came past, and I offered them a free alfresco lunch with me. Tapas washed down with pints of San Miguel. They were very impressed, and I got to practise my fledgeling Spanish.
After the lunchtime shift, I raced to the cash and carry where I bought a boiler, paper cups and plastic cutlery and pint glasses.
All our three restaurants were very busy just like the rest of the marina. We had kept our prices the same as a marketing ploy to get people to come back after the event.
We later found out that most of the catering vans who were charging over a fiver for a hot-dog did not perform as well as expected.
Early on Saturday morning, I placed a table outside Casa del Mar and used an extension to plug the boiler. By the time the first coachloads began arriving, I was ready to serve coffee and tea.