I have been sailing for a few days as if it was dinghy sailing because I don’t have any wind information. The boat’s electronics haven’t been going well since Cape Horn and for three days, nothing has been working.
Thank God the automatic pilots are working, though! The problem is with the wind vanes – None the three I have on board is functioning. It is a problem to sail the boat at 100% since, during the day, I can helm as much as possible but at night, it is more difficult.
The worst of it was in the area of squalls, as without any information about the wind, the speed, or the real wind direction things were really complicated. Now the boat is making a fixed heading without any concern for whether the shifts are for or against it, and so we are gradually losing more distance and time. It is difficult to understand how three wind vanes can be broken…. but hey…..these things happen! It will reduce my pace a little but I’m going to stay in there and still try to catch those ahead of me…
It is becoming a bit of a mission to get through this area. It looks like each time we get a little further north, the easterly winds shift to the north. It’s incredible how the wind turns against you at times.
Mike and Jean just scraped through and Dom will get through before me. It is going to be a little more difficult for me, since I have to go further east to look for the shift and also it just so happens that there is also less wind there…But “no worries!”, the boat is going well, I’m ok and I still have food for now. So there is nothing to be worried about. I will soon be at the equator – just a little later than I had expected.
I have read what happened to Jean Pierre and this is a massive disappointment for him for something like this to happen at this stage especially after the fabulous race he was having. I would like to send him all my support and encouragement and I hope he can get to LSD as he is right now.
Bubi
