The throttle issue does seem to be simple tensioning of the Morse cable. My Edson pedestal does have a tightening screw, underneath the compass. I cleaned up the threads and tightened it, and it seems to be holding the throttle. We're marina bound for a week or so, won't be able to test it for awhile.

I'm getting the mast fittings drilled out for 5/16 bolts (with a snug fit for the bolts, not a lot of slack as DDW suggests). I'll tap and fit with Red Loctite or Dureloc. Then SS strapping bands right around the mast, two for each fitting. Hopefully that will be overkill but I don't want to deal with this issue again.

I also have to go up the mast as our internal spin halyard had a fair bit of chafe near the masthead. We've never had that before, so it was disappointing for it to show up while on passage.

A few random notes:

My wife tried Gravol and Sturgeron, but neither had much effect. Finally she tried a Transdermal Scopolamine patch and very soon after was fine and remained so for the duration, with little or no side effects. I've been told they rejiggered the formula in recent years to reduce/eliminate some of the side effects (tiredness, occasional hallucination-like issues). Does anyone know if that is the case? One reason John Harries doesn't like the patch is due to these side effects, but perhaps it's not an issue anymore.

The spinnaker let us go 5-6 knots deep off the wind in light westerlies when we might have been doing 4 or so under poled out jib (or having to do wide jibes). The weather pattern was very settled which made us more comfortable carrying it. We did get a wrap one morning when the air suddenly died in rocking seas and I had to go up the mast. One lesson learned: remove the inner forestay when carrying the spinnaker. It provided a big target for the spinnaker to wrap around.

We loved the Iridium and Winlink (ham) system for getting GRIBs and staying in touch. The Lowrance HDS7 was not as good picking up fishing boats as we might have wished. I don't remember this being an issue in Maine so will have to play with it now that we have more targets around. The Vesper Watchmate AIS was fantastic with a capital F. Intuitive to use, let's you know exactly what is going on vis a vis ships. We had one ship that was going to have a CPA of a quarter mile. We called him on DSC when he was still 10 miles away, he said he saw us and would steer clear which he did.

We'll be here in the Azores for a month or so, then head for the UK. Jon you should plan a trip here; as others have said it's a gem. btw I told my wife to photo shop out all the jerry cans and crap on the back, in case you were watching just kidding, it's pretty clean except for the solar panels which I could remove and store below pretty easily tho it would be a nuisance to do.