100% SOLAR POWERED catamaran open sea crossing ROUGH SEA conditions

The crew of Solar Eclipse, a 40 ft 100% solar powered catamaran designed and built in Bali, undertakes a tricky crossing from North Bali to Gili islands on a very windy day. The sea state and winds were quite muscled and regular ferries were not crossing that day. We were the only crazy ones venturing into the open with our solar boat. After a first attempt in the early morning when we were greeted by dolphins that told us not go, listening to them and seeing all boats rushing back to shore, we decided to postpone to a bit later and departed around mid-day. We made it by dusk and found a surreal mooring on top of a reef off Gili Meno. Established winds between 20 and 25 knots, wave height around 2-3 m on the beam. Good sun. No back up onboard. This was during lock down. The islands were quite desert. We celebrated this rough crossing and enjoyed the comfort of this beautiful, clean and silent yacht to recharge our own batteries :)