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left the harbor about 11:15 in the morning, having waited until then for final weather reports.The villagers had seen us "start" so often they had lost faith, so there were only a few on shore to see the Friendship take the air.

I had left a telegram to be sent half an hour after we had gone.

after we "Violet. Cheerio.

I had left a telegram to be sent ha"A. E."

That was the message. The code word "Violet" meant "We are just hopping off." That was our official good-bye to America.

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Log Book:

A motion picture camera and the boys' thermos bottle left. We have only the small thermos filled with coffee for the boys. I shan't drink anything probably unless we come down.

By the way, our rations might be considered eccentric. About half of the five gallons of mineral water put on at Boston remained. There

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