Day 12 gone and on the donk continuing towards Flores, Azores 39:19N 032:56W

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Wed 28 May 2014 14:54
Start of day 13 Noon on Wednesday 28th May 2014.
In position 39º19'N 032º56W COG 088(T) SOG 5.6kn On donk. Wind now W F4. 2m seas. Clouds clearing & sunny.
Flores, Azores is 087(T) 81NM Dist Run by log in last 24 hours 135NM Distance made good towards Flores 127NM.
ETA Porto das Lajes, Flores is early tomorrow morning, Thursday 29th.

Early edition:
Being on donk in F6 winds and waves on qtr and 3-4m swelly seas on beam make for a very rolly polly Ticketeeboo. All movement around the yacht is essential because of the risk of injury. Fact º it would be unsafe for us to furl any sail means we are totally dependent on the effects of our keel to dampen our rolling ............ norralot either! We enjoyed a lovely fresh yellow-fin tuna pasta for lunch and polished-off the left-over pasta with bread and 'survival ham' (Sue knows what that is) for evening snack. It's been wall-to-wall overcast skies, occasional rain plus lots and lots of drenching seawater over out stbd side licking decks & cockpit. I like to remind Mike that he said he 'always' prefers watchkeeping in the cockpit! Something has changed his mind!!!! When one of us does have to go in the cockpit to check engine oil pressure and water temperature, as well anything else, it's not a place to stay & enjoy. Even a crazy masochist would not want to be uncomfortable in our col
d & wet cockpit in these conditions. I do feel sorry for anybody sailing back to UK or NW Europe because it's only gonna get colder and wetter north of here!
Somewhat disappointed not to have heard from Discovery Yacht's today. Hopefully tomorrow. It's no joke finding out the rigging is defective half way through an ocean passage and I'm relying on them to help organise the parts needed to get the job sorted whilst in the Azores. It's also no joke needing to run the donk in superb sailing conditions because it would be unsafe to resume sailing. Raises the question "When can a specifically designed/built/sold/high-costing ocean sailing yacht be deemed suitable for ocean sailing without risk of these sort of surprises?" Yes I'm not amused because I expect our sailing yacht to meet all promises made by the manufacturer.
Now here's an example..... in first four years we did 12,500 NM, Getting to the Med and sailing in the Med means 80% on donk and 20% sailing. That's say 2,500 NM actual sailing. This year we've added another 5,000 NM so far. Up until last few days that would have been 80% sailing, whereas it's now say 70%, which is 3,500 NM sailing. Hence, since new (2009) we've sailed for a total of 6,000 NM. Selden say our fixed rigging should be replaced at 25,000 NM so multiple rigging failures after just 6,000 NM sailing is totally unsatisfactory in my book!
Stop the back page (nearly noon again):
With just around 15 hours and 80NM to go we're on our home-run for this passage. The hours of dark last night were very bouncy and rolly and occasionally a distracting loud thud, when 'hit' abeam by a biggish wave. Every time I heard the 'thud' I listened for any following noises, fortunately none..... only water making the noise. There's no moon these days and when overcast/squally as well there is absolutely nothing to be seen in the hidden blackness as we move along. We're still here though and none the worse for the experience although not for the feint-hearted!
We plan to be on hook at Porto das Lajes, Flores until Sunday morning. It's then 130'ish NM overnight SW sail (donk) towards Horta, Faial. We want to be in Horta Monday morning so that Mid Atlantic Yacht Services can have an early ganda at the work we want doing. We were thinking of upgrading our 12mm V1 shrouds to 14mm in accordance with DYL/Seldon recommendations. Unfortunately, DYL's email this morning informs me there is non-availability in UK and lead time is more than 3 weeks away. Hence we will be entirely dependent on MAYS to do these repairs. I do not wanna be playing stink pots any longer than absolutely necessary! This morning the skies have started to clear and we're seeing 28ºC in cockpit so cushions should dry soon.
Sue tells me it's a miserable wet day at home and intends having G&T to celebrate when I confirm our safe arrival/attached to seabed. Tomorrow should be a good day for Sue if starting with a G&T for breakfast!
I'll be flogging clocks 3 hours forward on my watch to match Azores local time, which then puts us just 1 hour behind UK - feeling closer to My Lover already! Very best regards to all family and friends xxxxxxxx
Ticketeeboo MMSI 235071989 Callsign 2CED3, Ham callsign = m0hng
At 28/05/2014 05:40 UT our position was 39°17.34'N 033°59.34'W
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