Khaleesi - Log Day 7 Rough Weather

The weather had been very rough and we had experienced a number of crashes and bangs with kit and equipment being thrown around their storage areas. But one noise in particular grabbed our attention; it was a clunking noise that occurred whenever we changed tack (inadvertently) We put it down to something in the lazerette locker moving around. In the morning as daylight broke I popped my head up into the cockpit to ask Pete and Graham about the sail plan to see if they had any suggestions. We also mentioned the noise, and the rudder bearing was mentioned as a possible cause. We quickly removed the emergency tiller cover, and soon spotted that the rudder bearing was slipping; Oh No, not again! There was nothing for it but to deal with it immediately. I furled in the genoa, got the guys to come up into wind so we could raise the mainsail to the second reef, then bore away again to deploy the genoa again. Now we could heave to, which we did. The lazerette was emptied of its contents; hose-pipe, shore power cables, oils and greases, fenders, spare main sail etc. The cockpit was soon full with stuff and I slipped down into the lazerette to check on the rudder. The bonus of being hove to was that the rudder was fairly still and the helmsman could exercise better control over it. This meant I could reach up to check the securing bolts, and sure enough discovered that the two new pan head bolts we had fitted in Bermuda had sheared through. One other bolt had as a consequence begun to work its way loose, but the other three bolts were still tight. I sorted through my assorted spares and found two stainless steel 6mm bolts with hex heads that would fit. Pete then clambered into the lazerette and soon we had the bolts in place and tightened up. The locker contents were restored to their place, and we were up and sailing again having spent two hours fixing the bearing. Fingers crossed these bolts will hold until Horta. The rest of the day was uneventful, but the weather closed in and the wind veered to the East, and so we had to bear away SE to maintain progress. We chose SE rather than NE as other boats had reported better weather to the South. So here we are on 23 May, sailing at a sedate pace bathed at last in sunshine rather than cold rain. Nearly halfway:)
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Khaleesi at 5/23/2018 8:25 AM (utc) our position was 37°22.60'N 049°15.07'W