Khaleesi - Log Day 11 - At Last - Fair winds and calm seas

We seem to have hit a purple patch, temporary or otherwise, but we have fair winds of between 15 and 18 knots, and calm seas with lazy low lying swells. As a result we are munching up the miles at a good 7.2 to 7.7 knots per hour. With 450 nm to go we could see us arriving in Horta in 3 days, which would be outstanding. Yesterday we emptied the lazerette again to check on the rudder bearing, but were able to do so on the move, and this time the securing bolts could be tightened up with the rudder in a centralised position. They all needed to be tightened which Pete did once again by contorting himself into odd shapes and positions down in the lazerette risking life and limb on the bolts that protruded through from above from various deck fittings, and with the moving ridder stock he was working around. But this morning when I checked for movement in the bearing, there was much less than on previous occasions. Excellent news for the time being.
The calm seas have the bonus of bringing much needed stability to life on board, and we have all been catching up on our sleep, which until now, we were unaware of how tired we actually were.
Yesterday saw the cruising chute go up at dawn, and stayed up throughout the day. At one point the winds died away, but less than an hour later saw them picking up again, so we did not lose too much ground. We tried to keep it flying through the night, but at about 11pm, the wind started to gust up to 14 or 15 knots, and Khaleesi was overpowered a couple of times, so down came the chute in the moonlight, and out went the genoa. We had two reefs in the main, and powered along at 6.5 knots until this morning at 6am, when we shook out one reef, still keeping one in to protect the rudder as much as we can whilst making good speed.
The generator is used about twice a day to restore battery capacity, and to allow us to put the water maker on, and the water heater. So far so good, but the generator still consumes diesel, so we need to keep a careful eye on our diesel capacity. We do not want to be caught short at the last moment.
Still no fish but we have been escorted a few times by dolphins which was a delight to see. The fleet reports whales ahead so perhaps we will be lucky and get to see the leviathons of the sea before too long.
We hgad an issue with our battery monitoring system, called a Link 10 which was displaying a "low battery" alarm. On top of the rudder bearing I thought Neptune was trying to tell me something!! But I asked Graham to take a look at it as he has an interest in electrical stuff. He discovered that one of the parameters in the Link 10 settings was incorrect, and so what seemed like a faulty battery was easily resolved.
So all well at the moment, so we will close and enjoy the good sailing we are now experiencing.
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Khaleesi at 5/27/2018 10:09 PM (utc) our position was 38°14.01'N 036°18.58'W