After our frustrations with the electrical problems resulting in us surviving off of a trickle charge solar panel, unfortunately the mainsail blew up last night at 2:45 am approximately 310 miles from Havana. We continued on under the heavy #1 and this morning we agreed to race on. The first improvisation was to use the #3 as a trysail and this made the little sail very angry.
The next option was to use a batten above the rib as a structural element and we have successfully sailed on the “frankenmain” for two hours now – although we are still discussing how to tack or gybe with it. We will likely drop it each time.
We are still without any weather routing and are hand plotting – also down to one cellphone that can be used with the sat-fi system, one laptop at half power and one sat-phone.
As of 2:24 pm on Monday, our position was 86 degrees 20 minutes and 84 degrees 42 minutes. Heading has been 128º and we are averaging about 6 knots in 10 knots of breeze – again still on the nose.We are in the Loop Current which is giving us a +2 kick straight towards Havana. The rest of the fleet appears to be ignoring the current and as we’re limping along now at about 6 knots, we are simply going to attempt to cover them and be the first to finish.
A crewmember just had a beer and a bag of Zapps Cajun potato chips up on deck and said, “It’s kind of like I just had my own little crawfish boil.” I stuck my head up on deck and asked if there was anything else I should address and was met with a “Did you cover this sweet tan line?” I went back down below.
Arrival in Havana is expected late Tuesday, maybe early Wednesday. Spirits are high.
Follow along with the crew of Lesson #1 on the race tracker or our blog page for updates on the race to Cuba.
