Hi, Kit here. Sorry there isn’t a position update since 4am Sunday morning, and no update from Sam. I’m just filling in the gap while he sorts his power issues out.

Sam has been running on one battery so far, to preserve the second as a backup. The combination of overcast skies, and sand deposits from the southerly winds means that this one hasn’t been charging up properly so Sam decided to switch to the fresh battery to give the other one a chance to recharge fully. That turned out to be a very frustrating and painful exercise - it seems the battery wasn’t properly installed originally and Sam is having to try to cobble something together to enable him to use it at all. Coupled with that, the supplementary solar panel he took with him for overcast times is proving rather erratic, and the sunshine he should be getting has been a long time coming. Looking at the weather charts he should be getting some today though.

Anyway, all this means that he has switched off all his gadgets and gizmos to conserve the little power he has while he fixes things.

I can’t therefore give you an accurate position update, but he is likely to be a bit west of where he was yesterday (and perhaps a smidgeon north as well). He has had the sea anchor out again over the weekend, to give his left arm and shoulder a chance to recover ready for the better winds which should have arrived early this morning and to allow him to work on the batteries.

I have had a couple of conversations with Sam over the satellite phone but reception was poor because of electric storms near Pacific Pete. He sounded frustrated by the weather and by the battery situation but coping well nonetheless and looking forward to a good steady run south-west from today. What a fantastic piece of equipement the sat phone is. Being able to communicate is so important, particularly for Sam, but also for us. Huge gratitude to Mark Sheridan and all the staff in the IT department at Zurich Financial Services in Swindon for providing the communications equipment.

Keep sending the messages. He really appreciates them and although he won’t be picking them up until he sorts the power out, he will need them when he does.