The past three days have been eventful, which is why I haven’t posted until now. After our lovely Thanksgiving celebration with alcohol free champagne, we were feeling great about our progress and how smoothly everything had gone so far. Actually we felt until now more like VIP cruisers, than hardcore racers.
The following day, the sea state changed dramatically. The calm, easy sailing gave way to rough conditions, with the boat rolling side to side under gusty winds—definitely no more champagne sailing.
Then, during my night shift, I asked Paul if everything was okay, and his response was a firm “NO.” The generator had stopped charging our batteries, which were down to about 20%. This was a big problem, as the batteries power essential systems like the autopilot, instruments, fridge, lights, and water pump. After some troubleshooting, we discovered the battery charger was faulty.
Despite the rolling conditions, we managed to rig two small backup chargers together, creating a workaround to recharge the batteries. It’s been a challenging few days, but thankfully, we’ve found a temporary solution.
The downside is that we now have to run the generator much more frequently since we can’t utilize its full capacity. We’re trying to calculate if we have enough diesel in the tank for the remaining days.
As darkness set in, the wind picked up, and we decided it was too strong for the parasailor. Taking it down proved to be quite a challenge in dark, involving some dramatic moments and a wrestling match with the sail, but we eventually got it under control.
Later that night, I was woken by Jolanda with alarming news—we had lost all instruments and the autopilot. Somehow, the battery connected to the instruments had been drained. Jolanda had been steering the boat in complete darkness, guided only by the compass, without a horizon in sight. She did an incredible job, and we’re all so proud of her. After troubleshooting and fixing the battery issue, I was able to get back to bed.
In the early morning hours, we encountered our first squalls, with winds exceeding 33 knots. Thankfully, we managed to keep the boat on course and were so relieved we had taken the parasailor down earlier. Today, everyone is feeling exhausted, and we’re hoping the waves will settle so we can finally get a good night’s sleep.
This is the captains message among the skippers this morning:
Boat Name: Isabel
Position: N14’02.0 W047´01.5
Info: Well we were just saying last night how well things were going with the boat….. Big mistake!! In the small hours our Mastervolt Masscombi charger failed, we have spent the day tearing the boat apart trying to rig alternate methods of getting charge into the batteries (other than the engine!). Not been easy in the rolly conditions! Now we have a semi solution but we will need to run the genny about 60-70% of the time to keep up. We have also had to go onto our low power/water usage regimes (so only sporadically on Starlink now…)
Crew morale as good as can be expected but at least we are still making good progress.
Thanks everyone for the support and messages along the way.
follow us on: Fleetviewer (ARC+)
our Mascot Ratty: Ratty Insta