may 31st

Yacht Ariel
Henry Adams
Sun 1 Jun 2008 19:31
position: 32:39.0N, 64:37.8W
 
...and we're off! 
 
decided to spend fri evening in St. George's in the end.  we met Jacob, a stocky discheveled man, at customs.  He appeared to have been involved in quite a serious brawl, or perhaps several (scabs and bruises over his face and body) but was remarkably cheery,  kindly handing us a beer  (7% carlsberg) while we were waiting.  He turned out to be Icelandic but spoke quite good English, and we exchanged plans for the coming weeks and it turned out he was sailing direct to Ireland.  That was until Henry showed him a picture of the Azores in a book and he smiled a wide grin and changed his mind.  He got up from the pier, exclaimed "i always leave harbour drunk", and disappeared through ferry cut behind a cloud of smoke, beer in hand! 
 
shortly after this we discovered that our crate of ginger beer that we'd innocently bought at Hamilton to pick up the sugar loads in times of need, is in fact loaded with rum... no indication of the percentages but from the taste it's not benign stuff!
 
following morning we set off at 6 and motor sailed to current position.