Major but Minor Mechanical FAILURE on Day 17
Day 17 of our Atlantic crossing starts the best way possible: real, deep sleep.
After days of exhaustion, the ocean finally gives us calmer conditions, long stretches of rest, and a sense that our bodies are catching up. We wake up hopeful for a fish, surrounded by sargassum, with clean solar panels after overnight rain — but power quickly becomes the theme of the day as we talk through the realities of running a high-demand boat entirely off-grid.
We break down why even 1,800 watts of solar doesn’t always keep up on passage, how shading and boat motion affect production, and why cooking, water-making, Starlink, autopilot, and daily life add up fast. We also talk honestly about future power ideas, including why wind generation might make more sense for us than a hydrogenerator.
Midday brings another mechanical curveball: our alternator fails. We walk through what that actually means — what still works, what doesn’t, and why the engine remains safe to run even without charging the house bank. Not ideal, but manageable.
The rest of the day is slow and human in the best way: showers, checking on Dingo’s healing ear, clay Christmas crafts made from ethical natural pigments, homemade pizza, sourdough, and settling in for our annual tradition of watching Harry Potter — thankfully stored on a hard drive instead of locked behind streaming borders.
No land in sight yet, but the weather has improved, morale is higher, and for the first time in a while, the crossing feels sustainable again.
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