We were both up reasonably early, I had a wash and shave and got the forecast and recommended route whilst still able to get wifi and then made preparations for leaving, along with some breakfast. We slipped the lines at 0800 with Mark having come along to say goodbye and assist where possible. The wind was almost on the nose and slipping went according to plan. Once clear of the other yachts we struggled to get the anchor off the bottom with the windlass, however it wasn’t tangled up with anyone else’s just well dug in and came up, eventually after I had pulled it out with the boat, all covered in thick mud. By the time we were clear of the harbour we had still to finish tidying the deck and cleaning the anchor prior to stowing it in the anchor lokcer for the passage and the swell was making this  difficult so we returned to the shelter snd Patrick made several turns of the harbour whilst I brought the anchor on deck, removed it from the chain and stowed it. I tried to seal the spurling pipe with builders foam which had nearly gone off but still, after some encouragement, coming out very slowly. Once we had finished tidying and securing we headed back out, set the main with a reef in it and headed to the West, downwind of the Island for a gentle start.
Once able to turn right we did and put out the genoa with a couple of reefs and headed North at a good lick. The wind was WSW and 12-18 kts, we spent the day making good progress North - we need to get North before making much Easting so as to try to avoid the Azores High and light winds. We shook reefs out snd put them in again as appropriate and Patrick made us sandwiches for lunch. By sundown we were still going well with a reef in main and genoa. We had been going to have a beer for sundown but as there were two, old, bottles of wine in the fridge, mostly already drunk and not likely to improve, we had a cup of wine each instead along with a small packet of crisps.
I made a sausage and rice stir fry for dinner and we started watches - 3 hours on and off from 2100 with Patrick taking the first.
The night went smoothly until 0300 when we must have passed a line of clouds and the wind shifted around a lot and became variable for 3 hours, we are now making good progress again, just East of North with single reefed main and genoa.
Slainte, Jock, Patrick and Yemaya.