Cozumel, México to Canal de los Barcos, Cuba

Katharine Smith

Up to 20 knots of wind with up to 6 foot waves. We had to tack 200 + nautical miles since our paths was directly upwind. We sailed to a wind angle of 37 degrees. We lost internet connection since we were off the grid. The wave slapping from the front was uncomfortable and we hit a couple squalls with 30 knot winds. We had to reef during those for about 1.5 hours. The radio started blinking and eventually died. The wind gauge also was intermittently working and then not. During the last 2 hours and as we were motoring with sails put away, the master switch pro malfunctioned as I went to turn on the interior lights and killed one engine, all the navigation controls, and all navigation lights. We did a complete 360 as the auto pilot disengaged. We had to hand steer by the iPad navionics in slamming waves with no light. Mark went to troubleshoot the switch pro and ended up cutting wires to disable the devices controls for navigation, lights and engine. We were only going 2-3 knots with one engine in strong current. Once navigation was back online, we discovered that the navigation light was not working. Radio, switch pro, and navigation light all broken. Wind gauge on deck for brokenness. We anchored with flashlight in a very slim waterway. No one else there but we had to reset as too close to shore.