So far this trip we have had our minds on energy, and not just the oil field dinosaurs. Shortly after the start our hydrogenerator, from which we derive most our energy for the boat, stopped producing the critical amps that keep the boat humming along. We harness the wind for our locomotion, but today’s increasingly wired yachts need power for navigation computers, satellite communications and autopilots.

We’ve come along way since Sir Robin Knox Johnson first sailed non-stop around the world in 1969 on a wooden boat with wind vane self steering. He would have probably scoffed at our calamitous turn of events, but then he would have been screwed if he spilled his lamp oil! Each generation has its own Achilles heel.

For nearly a week now we have been handsteering almost all the time and turning off all electrical devices except the GPS and wind instruments. While the technicians at Watt and Sea rightly enjoyed their Easter weekend, I was chewing off my fingers nails while stressing about whether we would have enough diesel to run the engine to charge the batteries and make water with the desalinator.

After a couple of days of back and forth with Watt and Sea, our unit had failed all diagnostic tests and we’d given up hope of producing green energy on the ocean blue and had resigned ourselves to diesel pitstop and the associated penalty from the race committee. However, last night while helming, I had a flash of inspiratinon and discovered that we had made some assumptions during the tests that had given us a false negative. The generator still works and we are charging again. Our mood has lifted, the sun is shining (it actually never stopped, but the power from the solar panels wasn’t enough on its own to keep us going) and all is well in the world.