Yesterday we celebrated crossing the midpoint with a big party. Peter prepared a perfectly roasted beef, Yorkshire pudding and gravy with potatoes and peas and scones prepared by Lars after a traditional British recipe. That’s the good news. The bad is that the 24V alternator stopped working and we definitely cannot fix it. In our boat most of the electronics, the freezer and the fridge, the autopilot, the head (toilet bowl) and the watermaker and big inverter run of the 24V system, so without the alternator we only have the solar panels and the tow generator to charge them. They are not enough to keep all systems running. For the moment we don’t use the water maker – but have enough water in our tank – and we use the backup 25 years old Autohelm 3000 autopilot which means occasional hand steering if the conditions get tough.
We got also surprised by a huge squall with 45 knots winds and lots of rain. It only lasted 30 minutes but was enough to get us all soaked and thrilled. We reduced sail to just a windsurf size but still managed to reach 8-9 knots speeds with the old lady.
Now that I’m writing the report we have nice clear sky, nice waves and a beautiful sailing conditions.
Panos, Peter and Lars on Cookelu meu.