The first miles on the journey South

Monday afternoon 15:45 we departed Lunenburg, after a maintenance periodof almost two weeks in the friendly town where we experienced greathospitality from a lot of people. Many came to wave Europa goodbye andafter a long blast of the famous horn we were off. Sails were up within20 minutes, the engines could be switched off and we were underway undersail.The first encounter with the Atlantic ocean was a sunny but choppy one.Strong winds during the night and morning before departure caused ashort steep swell close to land which made several people feel sick.This didn’t stop them from setting more sails though.Now, a day later, life on board settled a bit already, the waves calmeddown and all got used to the motion of the sea. Everybody shows up forthe meals, watches are complete and the first lectures on sailing aregiven. We made 36 hours of good progress under sail until halfway thisnight. The wind decreased and backed from South-south west to theSouth-south east. We took away most of the sails and are on engine now.The beautiful full moon we enjoyed during the night has set and the sunjust rose above the horizon. The water temperature got above the 20degrees Celsius. This means we left the last bit of cold Labradorcurrent and hit the Golfstream. We’re now definitely on our way to thewarmer South.All well,Janke