They say that things on a boat can go very wrong very quickly and we were no exception. Yesterday afternoon 1845hrs we were enjoying the respite of a day without squalls after three days pretty much non stop attacks. We were running the full main to get maximum impact as the wind was circa 25 knots on the beam and a little strong for the Trade Wind sail.

A momentary drift off course and rouge wave and the front of the boat was round to starboard allowing the wind behind the sail and we started to stall and in involuntary gybe as the wind forced us round, the boom preventer held but was complaining under the strain so we decided to release it slowly, no sooner had we done this the boat veered back to port slamming the boom across with devastating consequences as it snapped clean in half.

My assessment of the situation was thus, the back have of the boom consisting of sharp fragmented aluminium was now flogging side to side under considerable speed proving quite an effective impaling weapon. Within seconds I had assessed the priorities and dashed for the winch handle and asked colin to bear into the wind. I rushed up front to quickly wind in the main sail as it was this that was driving the force in the flogging main. That executed things started to calm down a little and Michel and I untangled the severed boom and wrestled it to the floor to secure it safely on deck.

On next task was to assess our option on completing the rest of the voyage to St Lucia. Michel suggested a jury rig on the remaining boom allowing us to let out half the mainsail so we could continue sailing. Given we were only now 190 miles from our destination, I suggested that we use the remaining diesel to motor in as up to that point we had motored only about 5 hours in the last three weeks so had plenty of fuel left. This combined with the trade wind sail flown out front if the wind abated would be fine to get us there. So that’s what we did, last night we motored not easy in the following waves and this morning we managed about one and a half hours under the trade wind sail before more squalls assaulted us and we had to furl this in a desperate hurry before 30 knots of wind hit us.

In yesterdays blog Ian suggested that we were done with squalls which when I read the blog I thought was a brave statement as sure enough today they are back, another good sailing tip don’t assume anything and one swallow does not a summer make.

So in conclusion pretty gutted that after 2,700 miles we will have to limp over the finish line under motor tonight but things could have been much worse. If the aforementioned had occurred mid Atlantic we would have to been a lot more inventive on solutions with insufficient fuel to complete the trip. Noone was hurt and we live to fight another day, the damage is very repairable and have already emailed ahead for an assessment on Monday morning so we can order the parts from Selden and have them shipped, if they are in stock 7 days would be a reasonable expectation, leaving just fitting.

Two key attributes for any sailor, resilience and resourcefulness, here’s to a peaceful final 80 miles in and a welcome reception tonight

 Paul/Skip