Bye Bye Azores, hello blue ocean!

Bye Bye Azores, hello blue ocean!
This morning the Tecla set sail from the Azores. We set sail in the harbour of Vila da Praia on Graciosa and waved goodbye at the harbour workers unloading the local, small cargo ship, and set hello to the Blue Ocean ahead of us.

The weather was beautiful, sun shining with a south westerly breeze. So everybody was really looking forward to setting sail. We have a nice mix off people on board, first time sailors and well known faces of people who have sailed with us before or on one of the other Dutch Tall Ships during our world circumnavigation.

Outside it is about 17 or 18 degrees, so not really flip flop weather; but not really sailing suit weather either. We have the wind in our back and the star constelation Casiopea ahead of us to lead the way. We are keeping a north by east course as we expect the wind to decrease to the east off us. We have our topsails set and are doing about 6 knots. The Europa left the Azores 3 days before us and is about 350 miles ahead of us. For both our tracks online please visit www.dutchtallships.com

It is good to be out on the big blue again with a nice gentle breeze to push us along. Our last bit of ocean before we hit the English Channel and head home – for the first time since 1 year and 7 months.

01:00UTC 40’31.3N 027’43.3W – 015′ – 5,7kn