23:28.56N 32:53.5W
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!
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