A very wild night of boisterous sailing in big wind and big seas gave way to morning. No sunrise; just black fading to grey. This is the fifth day in a row of lead skies. At 07:00, just as Captain was coming on watch to relieve me, the small electronics suddenly quit working. There was no depth, no speed over ground, and no anemometer. They were all blank, as though they’d been turned off. Thankfully our windvane at the top of the mast was intact, plus the sails spread out wing and wing let you know immediately if you are getting the wind angle wrong. As to knowing wind speed....well it’s back to guessing by the waves. Our chart plotter gives us speed over ground, so at least we can see our speed. I made coffee for us, then Captain spent the next four hours except during the radio net chasing down the cause of the malfunctioning instruments. Unfortunately the answer never presented itself, and we are resigned to going to Mauritius without them. By 11:00, after 7 hours on the helm I needed a break, so Captain came up to the helm. Even though our auto pilot is working, because of the huge seas that mostly are on the port quarter,(and occasionally try to board us), one of us needs to babysit Pi, because when overwhelmed ,he lets go and we spin off and get back winded if there is no one at the wheel. Also, about once an hour a squall passes by, and the wind veers 30-40 degrees for ten or fifteen minutes, then we must manually change course to keep the sails again, from becoming backwinded and possibly accidentally gybing. We have a good preventer line rigged to the end of the boom...but still, don’t want an accidental gybe! Very annoying sailing. Not restful or peaceful at all! Plus before the anemometer stopped working the wind was getting up into the low thirties, making for rough going. I made us some quesadillas, we decided not to risk the rest of our instruments by messing about in the wiring anymore. Lars put the panels all back together, did his noon radio chat with Chao Lay, and finally at 12:55, I was able to get a nap in, and my outlook greatly improved. We had a snack of cashews and sea salt caramel chocolate at 15:00, then Captain had a nap. At 17:35, after the radio net, our AIS, GPS and chartplotter position quit working. What a nightmare day! Captain managed to troubleshoot the GPS problem, and we got our position back on the chartplotter, but we don’t think AIS is working. Not a huge deal, as we see one ship about every 48 hours, and have encountered only one 115 foot fishboat in our entire 12 day journey, but still it’s disconcerting to have the electronics sodding off on us. Supper was beef and pepper pie with bubble and squeak, which was easy and fun to eat. Thankfully, the stove works, the refrigeration works, we have plentry of yummy things to eat, hot water and a working watermaker, so despite the frustrations of the instruments, our creature comforts are intact, and we are cozy and dry despite the never ending rain.And there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel...only about 500 more miles to go!
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