Start of day 3 towards Bermuda 23:17N 64:37W

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Fri 9 May 2014 20:02
1200hrs Zulu on 9th May 2014.
In position 20:16N 064:35W COG 344º(T) SOG varying 6km to 7kn close-reaching wind ENE F5
Bermuda is 359º(T) 549NM Dist Run in last 24 hours 161NM Dist made good towards Bermuda 141NM

Mostly close-reaching trying to avoid squalls using jib & mainsl. Settled into routines. Autopilot working well. Refrigerator being supported with bottles of iced water from freezer. Whilst close reaching keeps decks wet as we plough through waves, it makes for some dramatic noises when waves explode along the hull and bumpy, bumpy we goes along!
Pleased to see Annie & Mike now recovered from first night sea-sickness. s/y Rih Malti, which is approx 350NM E of us with Patricia & Patric on board are reporting engine problems, which Patrick thinks is caused by ingress of seawater at the exhaust. 12 hours later Patrick has their engine operational again.
Good steady sailing overnight. Most squalls passed ahead of us from E to W and we've only needed to donk for less than an hour since dark. Really good going, just little bumpy being almost close-hauled for so long in heavy seas. Naturally we take lots water over the bow and our sail-locker bilge pump has alerted us just the once so far. I suspect the sail-locker lid is allowing a little seawater in. Just hope the seawater does not get into our cycles or any electrical gear - it shouldn't!
Pleased to report Annie & Mike are no longer suffering with first night pewing-up and t'was much easier last night with the three of us doing 3 hour watches. Not much traffic (none) although we watchkeepers needing to acknowledge occasional wind-shifts to keep good sailing aspect & course. Annie & Mike do this well and it means I can make ZZZZs when I need to. Strange thing, when lying in bed you hear some noises differently and end-up trying to figure out what's making which noise when should be sleeping!
After breakfast S&S this morning decided to fill some little holes in our teak washboard handle. Sue knows the ones I mean, where I added a lot of little screws one morning. It'll be nice to have these screws disguised and job boxed-off permanently.
Checked-in this morning on Coconut Net. Great signal. Even helped with some relays when our propagation was better than those 300NM S of us. Even had chat with s/y Saraoni (when Alison slowed-down for me!).
We're having to settle for a course just W of N, which is about 90% good. No choice when the winds blow from ENE. Hence hoping/waiting for promised change to ESE winds (thank you Paul) so that we can pull-back what we must presently give-up.
If we continue to make good headway with good speeds we can expect to be at Bermuda on Tuesday 13th (4 more speeps) although I fancy we are really thinking 5 more sleeps to arrive Wednesday 14th? Then rest for maybe 3 days and get some R134A in our fridge circuit.

Love to Sue and J P F & S and R M S & T xxxxx

Ticketeeboo MMSI 235071989 Callsign 2CED3, Ham callsign = m0hng
At 09/05/2014 16:00 UT our position was 23°17'N 064°37'W
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