As you can see from the position reporter on the website we have stopped in New Zealand. The problem with the main autopilot that has persisted on and off since the start of the race has once again become a problem, we thought it was repaired in Hobart but it became very evident on the first day out of Hobart that the problems were not fixed.

On top of that, I lost all the wind sensors once again and could not steer the boat on auto by true wind direction, only by compass. The IMOCA 60’s are so fast that the autopilots do not respond very well when fed compass direction only making sleep or anything away from the helm very difficult.

I had developed a bad cold the day before departing Hobart and for the first four days slept a lot and was very tired. I will be stopping in Auckland to work on the boat and fly back to Canada to spend some time with my family and work with the team to develop a plan to take care of the pilot problems and revise our delivery plans from here.

Take Care

Derek