So 6 spent Thursday night aboard Aquila. After showers and a hearty breakfast, Vladimir arrived to take the girls back to the airport. We all again said our goodbyes....

As soon as they departed, Aquila slipped her moorings for a short hop to the fuel berth. Vladimir assured us it would be clean: the local oligarchs fuel their super yachts there, and you don't want to get the wrong side of them...

We then set off on the 20m leg to Kronshtadt to gain approval to leave. Where was the wind? Bang on the nose. Not too bad while in the shelter of thr Kronshtadt - St Petersburg lagoon, but beyond that it was going to be a different matter...

Exit formalities were the same as entry, in reverse . Customs met us, and merely wanted the form they had stamped on entry to put another stamp on it. Immigration again checked every compartment in the ship. But after 35 minutes everything seemed in order, and we were clear to go.

A lumpy sea greeted us as we cleared the flood barrier, together with a stiff WNW5. Two slabs and 6 rolls was the rig we set, and with the donk this gave us almost 7 knots - 'sporting it was! We tacked every 3-5 miles, dodging shipping and nav hazards as we steadily crawled west. By 2000 we were clear of the narrowest part of the St Petersburg approaches, and could make longer tacks. 

Haapasaari in Finland was the nearest EU port in which we could clear customs, but it was dead to windward and would mean we could not take advantage of a predicted wind shift.  So we elected to head for Vergi, in eastern Estonia.  Just as the skipper was relieving Ken of the watch at midnight, the predicted wind shift to NNW occurred - sheets were cracked off, and we were hitting 7.5kts in the direction we wanted. Brilliant!

And the girls? The necessary replacement part came in as hoped on the afternoon flight, and they eventually boarded at about 1900.  Wr have received reports that they successfully landed back in the UK some 3.5hrs later.