We left Ange de Colombier, St Barth around 20:30 UT after spending a beautiful day in a more beautiful bay. We thought to at least have one lazy day before setting sail for the Azores.It wasn't all lazy however. It turned out the alternator wasn't working. After an hour or so we found the problem, a simple fuse .. :-*
I also tried to mount my new tricolor. However, when one bolt of the old one would not come off, I decided to leave it. I didn't want to break something on the day we planned to leave. Still, working at the top of the mast, I just touched the propeller of the wind speed meter and it come off right away, completely dried out.. So all information on wind speed is an educated guess :-)While Frits and I were checking the alternator, Arie and Eline prepared dinner, so we didn't have to cook the first night under sail.
We took off with a very nice breeze, around 16 kts, and had e wonderful sail! It pretty much stayed the same so far, giving us a great speed. So far we do over 7 kts most of the time, except for the time we were dragging a fishing line with a couple of buoys.. Luckily I could cut the line quite easy.
The night went smooth and fine. I decided to work with the 4 on 4 off watch system to start with, so that there would be 2 on deck all the time. We all felt more confident since it's a new boat for the most of us.
The sailing so far is very close to perfect!!, Nice breeze, sunny with some occasionally clouds, running close reach at NE course and all enjoy it very very much!!
