July 25th, position 41°24.781N; 27°13.193W

Monday morning I took Rutger and Eline to the airport. Eline especially didn't want to leave, more then once she asked if I couldn't change her flight for the next week :-) But then again she didn't feel in joining us for the long sail home, so she left..
On my way back I picked up my gennaker which was perfectly fixed and went back to the marina where I found Marc in a very pissed of state. He had been trying to find out what happened to the life raft we had ordered. That should have been delivered by now. He  spend quite some time at the phone and finally with the help of the harbor master it was clear that it would be delivered that day at 5 pm....

Anyway Marc and I went to the supermarket and again managed to fill 7 big trolleys with stuff. They had a great service in bringing the stuff right away in a small van. Again we managed to stow everything in a reasonable place sort of... :-)

We had a nice farewell dinner at Internacional and after finishing our painting for good winds and a safe trip we set sail at around 10.30 pm.
It was a real nice and smooth start, sailing to Sao Jorge and after that into the Atlantic. Next day however the wind picked up and it became more of a challenge to steer the boat on a straight course. Sailing down wind with 4 to 5 meter waves is not particularly the easiest course to get used to the boat. So Marc and I did the most part of steering until the next day.  Then the wind had dropped and on a beam reach it was a bit more comfortable.
Speed was great though and after the wind veered to the East were could sail a course pointing straight to Scheveningen .
But if there's one thing for sure at these latitudes... it never stays the same for longer times .
Today we sailed with all full sails, including the staysail and some time later double reefed....
But that's good for getting to know the boat and the rigging of all the lines :-)
Anyway, so far everything is okay and we are starting to pick up the routine of doing watches, cooking and cleaning.. and, most important we all enjoy it very much