Volvo Ocean race, Galway

Galway won a bid to hold one of the Legs of the Volvo Ocean race, this was a huge thing for Ireland and was even bigger for Galway, we have a number of festivals in Galway during in the summer, Arts festival, Galway Races(horse) that bring thousands into the city during the summer so the tourist board was not sure that they could get even more people to come. The turnout for the ocean race was bigger than expected, there were thousands of people out on the docks to welcome in the boats at 4am after they sailed from Boston and there has been a carnival atmosphere in Galway since.  below are some pics of my day wandering around

A view of the masts of the ships in the Volvo Ocean race against the sky. If you thought the second one looked  different then it was this guy on top of the mast. The boats docked One of the boats coming into the dock after racing, the sails are down coming in, they use engines to travel in the docks. One of the boats inside the dock area The boats about to set off on the days racing, today there were pro-am racing where half the team was made up of amateur sailors from Ireland, the boat with the green sail is the Green dragon the Irish boat, its made in China hence the name. Another shot of the boats racing, we didn't get near enough to get a great shot. The Spanish Arch in Galways Latin Quarter one of 4 arches dating back to the 1580's  Another shot near the Spanish Arch, this old building is now an award winning restaurant. The Green dragon in Eyre Square Another view of the Green dragon looking down Eyre Square A Galway hooker, a traditional sailing boat sailed in galway joins in the fun A view of the bay with all the small sailing boats in the bay today The Galway hooker comes into dock