The second half of this race has not really started as we had anticipated. First we were caught off guard by the speed and force of a squall. It looked like we might be able to outrun the squall and avoid the worst part, but then the wind started building surprisingly fast.

Right after the decision was taken to drop the spinnaker we were hit by a gust that put us on our side. To regain manoeuvrability we first threw loose the vang. As this was not enough we had to ease out the sheets as well, which meant the sails were flogging. And before we could retrieve the spinnaker it had ripped in multiple places. In addition to us not having this sail available for the remainder of this race, we will have to spend a significant amount of time on repairing the damage in the next stopover.

Yesterday morning the generator was checked and started as we do every day. But after only a few seconds the generator turned itself off and reported an error: loss of raw water flow. My initial suspicion was confirmed upon inspection: the impeller had broken. Thus the cooling circuit was without a pump. We then exchanged the impeller and also the belt. Within half an hour the generator was running again as if nothing had ever happened.

Later on that day the radar stopped working. Since the incident with the spinnaker we had been monitoring it even more closely than before. After attempting to power cycle it, smoke was coming from the radar dish. We thus disconnected the radar to prevent further damage. The maintenance team suspects that some of the contacts might be corroded, leading to high currents and thus high temperatures. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do with what we have on board. Therefore, we have to be even more vigilant about looking out for squally clouds but also small fishing boats. As we get closer to shore there will be loads of them with.

All in all the last few days have been less successful. At least we could defend our position. How good our chances are to attack those in front remains to be seen. Depending on weather conditions we will miss the spinnaker more dearly. At least everyone on board is alright and except for a few minor complaints and the increasing exhaustion we have the full crew force available.