Hello all,

POS:    27* 23.6 S 113* 08.4 W         
SOG:    6.3
COG:    255
DTG:    923 NM to Pitcairn
Water temp: 23 C
Outside temp: 23 C

Yesterday we left Easter Island at noon. The morning at anchor was spent with drills, climbing aloft familiarisation, and preparing the ship. At 10 the officials came by one last time for our outbound clearance. The zodiac pilot made one more trip with his speaker on the bow of the fishing boat they use for tendering playing nice and happy tunes and then we were good to go!

The topsails, courses, and some staysails were unfurled. Since the wind came from the land the conditions were ideal to
sail from the anchor. It worked and half an hour later we sailed past the two cargo ships anchored in a NW direction. The wind was slight to start with, but within two hours after departure, a squall caught us. The wind shifted 100 degrees, rain fell and we wore ship. Well, it was more following the wind until sailing was possible again. Of course, it happened during lunchtime...the magnetic squall hour. The new course was 270 degrees eventually and with a nice fresh breeze we could set all sails in the afternoon.

Since then the speed has been super good. The direction is almost there where we want to go. Upcoming hours the wind is predicted to shift more to the west. The waves are already telling that that prediction will happen. The ship slowly started pitching in the last hours. All of a sudden some people don't feel too well. But all in all, everybody is happy and enjoying being at sea! We'll see how we can deal with the headwinds, but the predictions look quite ok.

For myself, it feels very light and nice to be out at sea and not wearing multiple layers of clothing and gear! The air is very moist, but warm. A lovely start to the trip.

Groetjes,
Janke Kingma
Captain bark EUROPA