Spirit of Canada "Understandably down"

Transat ECOVER BtoB Update from the Spirit of Canada website:

Hello from Spirit of Canada Team,

Have just spoken to Derek via Sat phone and he is understandably down. He is unable to receive weather information to the boat as his routing software is not opening so he is unable to open the weather files to analyse and use the wind to his advantage.

The reason that there has been no position report from the boat as of last night is because his communication systems have been down. The autopilots on the boat have not been working properly and last night put the boat into an accidently jibe causing alot of damage to the boat and some to Derek as he was tossed about during the manouveur. Derek was able to get things sorted out and the boat back on course only to find that the computer did not respond well to the boat being on its side and the Sat (used for polling) was not reporting to race committee so no position report was available to those following the race on the internet. Derek's current position is 23N by 32W he is moving at 12.7kts at 23T degrees.

Tired and in need of some sleep he is pushing on to Port La Foret as fast as he is able but not getting alot of sleep as the pilots are not trustworthy.

Thanks all to the many emails we have received over the last day as we try to sort out the weather and sat comms situations.

Take care,

Patianne