Sailing again (mostly) towards Sao Miguel

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Thu 19 Jun 2014 14:47
Yippee. It's good to be under sail again. Well, it was for almost 2 hours before having a friggin' big lump of land to our immediate N, which is producing a bit of a temporary wind'ole. The land is called Ilha Do Pico and it's gorra big pointy bit as high as the clouds. Should be in the windies again soon and sailing......... yippee.
In all we had 17 days at Horta. Lovely place. Will always prefer to be on 'ook if being rafted-up is the only other choice. At lease when we rafted up last Tuesday morning we were the outside yacht with 3 others between us and the concrete wall. Hence, this time no hairy arses forgetting to take their dirty shoes off when crossing our nice clean teak decks. The opposite this time. The yacht we rafted-to said "Oh no, don't take your shoes off to cross our deck............. a very rusty older yacht, which has seen a lorra water since it wqs last painted - presently different shades of orangy/red! Very nice people with two little girls.
We fueled-up before rafting. Another 672 litres of diesel to be paid for from the bottomless pit! Mostly the result of having to sail our last 750NM, not wanting to risk anything with damaged shrouds. Unfortunately got ripped-off by the Portugese Bank when making debit card payment. They charged me 2% bank fee on our debit card, which should not have incurred a fee! Something for me to email a request to refund. I don't like robbin' #ankers!!! When I visited the marina office to pay & check-out they couldn't help saying that the fuel station is owned by Club Nautico and not the marina. Settled MAYS bill too. That cleared our all my € save for just one single €5 note and a bit of shrapnel. All-round, the failure of our V1 shroud wires swaged fittings unexpected and premature failure has been quite costly to sort. As the saying goes "There's no pockets in shrouds." There must be a double play on words but I've missed it!
Another squiddy's out for time being. Last one got dizzy & cut-up when we arrived at Horta whilst droppin' hook........ I forgot about squiddy and it's now gone visiting Davy's locker. The one that's out has more of a skirt.
This little passage is about 145NM so we expect to arrive Ponta Delgada around mid-day tomorrow. We are forecast light winds, 10kn form NW so when they come back it should be lovely again.
Back to our rigging repairs........ not the easiest of jobs. All that I wanna say is whoever designed our lower spreader end-cap fitting arrangement, which is where for wires are connected, V1 upper, RD1 upper, V2 lower and D2 lower, is in need of a new job. The design is without thought or adequate appreciation for us owners who have to fix things working aloft. Could say "What's different on a yacht?" Sad fact is there is insufficient consideration given to facilitating repairs and I believe things won't change until designers & manufacturers include having to experience "How can this be more easily fixed if it breaks" before making it. Selden are a big name in yachting and it's when they make things difficult for the owner to fix. Fortunately we can now sail again - yippee!!!
Love to S, J,P,F&S and R,M,S&T xxxxx
Ticketeeboo MMSI 235071989 Callsign 2CED3, Ham callsign = m0hng
At 19/06/2014 11:48 UT our position was 38°24.25'N 028°25.90'W
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