Early on Sunday morning we departed from our "home" at Contest Yacht Yard for our next steps. Some, like our neighbours from "Jobber" were sad to see us go.
With those smiles, maybe they were happy to see us go ? Who knows, it was a great sendoff in any case.
Apollo, our other neighbour with a 57' Contest waved us off as we sailed out from Medemblik - so we are finally on our way with photo evidence to prove it.
With one last look behind us us to the Town Hall and slightly leaning churches, the ominous grey clouds were gathering to blow us along our way as we head through to the Amsterdam Canal and out onto the sea at IJmuiden.
The blustery winds did their best to give us a rough ride, but the solidly built Ocean Deva, with a well reefed mainsail and jib did great work for us, giving a quite smooth and swift passage up to the start of the Amsterdam Canal.
Passing 1 swing bridge, and 2 sets of locks with strong winds and reasonable boat control we made it through to IJmuiden according to schedule and arriving at a 3/4 full marina - so we could pick our ideal mooring spot for the evening sun.