We started around 9am on Sunday morning, down a packed street in downtown Darwin. There was a huge amount of media and press there - kind of crazy actually. The start went off without a hitch and we soon found ourselves cruising down Stuart's Highway (the main road we go choppin' on).
After passing a few broken down cars, we found ourselves with a few problems of our own. After a shredded tyre (a quick turnaround thanks to our awesome tyre crew) we realized we were suffering a problem with our array. Some quick math and guesstimates proved that it would be worth the lost time to pull over and solve it - and luckily our EE team managed to isolate the problem and get us back up and running at full power (we saw ~1100 watts today, a fantastic number). We sprinted to the next checkpoint and managed to slip in just a few minutes before it closed, and kept driving until we found our perfect array charging location just off the highway.
After day 1, we find ourselves just around kilometer 400. A solid performance, but we're confident we can better that distance tomorrow. Right now its about 8pm and we've already tucked Chopper in bed. Time to get some rest and prep for the next day - ideally not as eventful and exciting as today.
Off to hang out under Australian skies. Check back soon for more updates.
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Awesome job guys, that you even managed to get to the start at all with all the battery issues is impressive! 1100 watt is nice indeed, that's more than we ever saw with Eleanor. Let's hope it'll be smooth cruising from here!
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