The Turanor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest solar boat, is sailing through some of the most challenging weather it has encountered since it set out to sail around the globe in September.

Typhoon Muifa is stirring the waters and fogging the skies near China.

Turanor left Manila in the Philippines on Tuesday, Aug. 2 en route for Hong Kong. The 1,000-kilometer journey was expected to take 10 days.

“The forecasts predict heavy fog, so sunshine will be in short supply,” according to a release from the crew. “Now the biggest solar boat in the world is faced with a great challenge in managing the energy it needs to sail.”

The boat has seen cloudy days before, however, and PlanetSolar founder Raphael Domjan said the ship is equipped with good solar panels, batteries for energy storage and a crew that knows how to navigate scarce energy supplies.

The boat has successfully sailed, using nothing but the sun to propel it, from Monaco around the globe to where it is now. It’s broken the world record for distance traveled by a solar-electric vehicle.

The boat’s visit to the Philippines, where it just left, was one of the most successful, Domjan said. The crew was greeted by the Vice President of the Philippines, Jajomar Binay and the Swiss ambassador to the Philippines.

“We are very impressed by the impact our visit to the Philippines had,” Domjan said. “We had the opportunity to share our ideas with influential people. Thanks to the support of the most important medias in the Philippines, our project and its message reached 90 million people. For this reason, we are even more pleased that in a few days we can cause a wave of interest in China.”

The Turanor PlanetSolar is almost 100 feet long and covered in nearly 5,800 square feet of solar photovoltaic panels.

Domjan’s goal when he initiated the project was to show the world that existing solar materials are advanced enough to do remarkable things, like carry a ship and crew around the world, no matter the challenges and obstacles … like a typhoon, for example.

Pictured: Turanor PlanetSolar arriving in Brisbane, courtesy of PlanetSolar.