The day started at 5:30am moving the stand for the solar cell array into position to charge the batteries from the morning sun.
Just before our 8am departure we reassembled the array with the car and set off for the control point at Dunmarra.
After the 30 minute control stop, we passed through Elliot and one of the support vehicles travelling independently of the solar car broke down about 10 km down the road.
The support crew not travelling with the solar car spent the rest of the day trying to get it repaired.
The team members travelling with the solar car didn’t find out until later in the afternoon because we had driven rapidly out of radio range and out of any mobile phone service area. An official of the World Solar Challenge who caught up with us later in the day passed on the news.
In the afternoon we were still trying to get to Tenant Creek but many hills and a low battery pack in the car made it a slow afternoon and eventually we decided we couldn’t make it. It was decided to stop at a parking bay next to a Memorial to Stuart.
We were 915km from the start and 70 km short of Tenant Creek. After setting the array at an angle on the car and using the jack to tilt it over a bit more to get the best of the afternoon sun we made a makeshift camp while we waited for the rest of our crew to arrive.
We kept checking for the other vehicles on the radio but there was no reply until….we all cheered when we heard the voice of a missing comrade over the radio. They arrived soon after.
