Racing downwind in the mid-Atlantic
Sail In Libertad
A O Jaunsen
Thu 25 Jan 2018 10:53
Yesterday we managed to repair the 30cm tear in the main sail and change the batten cars with bearings that had busted – while sailing downwind on the genoa. So we hoisted the main (with reef 1) and the genoa again on the pole and set course straight downwind, which will take us straight to Guadalupe. The forecasted increase in wind came 12 hours early and we raced down waves hitting 17 knots in a few moments on a surf, while doing 9-10 knots over the course of the night.
During the night we had new challenges, this time electrical. One after the other the chart plotter, radio and external plotter and GPS stopped working. Tracing the fault to the radio battery bank which only seemed to deliver 14v (normally 24v) we (R&A) realised it was a simple manner switching on the parallel switch for redundant power from the service bank. Instruments back up and working. Thank goodness for the built in redundancy on board the vessel!