Trouble at Sea...

First of all thank you for all of your concern, prayers, and offers to help. We are stable at this point - both masts are attached although will undo shrouds just in case they slip, as it’s very cumbersome and seems very dangerous to carry 2 masts on the deck. 

Yesterday after dinner we enjoyed a pleasant sail, I just posted a reel on social media that we finally can relax. On my Navionics map, I take pictures on my night shifts and this also keeps our track. In the picture, the wind is below 10 knots and the speed, is just below 6, which is very comfortable for us. About half or an hour later it got dark, we both finally got showers as it was a normal gentle roll and I was about to take a nap when the boat suddenly spun (we had following seas) and then the horrendous noise and crash happened. Ken shouted “We lost the mast” I was instantly there as I was getting ready to lie down in companion way - right next to the cockpit. It was insane !!!

Ken quickly got a harness and went up front to see what was happening - our main mast broke about 4 ft /~1 .5 meters from the bottom and I’m not sure if we pulled it backward with winches or it did by itself and leaned/hanged next to mizzen mast, constantly bashing due to rolling waves. We tried to stabilize, turned on the engine, and turned so that the sails wouldn’t flap. There were sparks where the mast broke and after disconnecting the mast and winches electricity it kept sparking and getting bigger so Ken went inside and ripped apart the cables, and sparks finally stopped. We desperately tried to save the Mizzen mast and did our best to secure/ stabilize the main mast but it was impossible. 

At that point, our Starlink was below the hanging main mast and we decided to take it inside as we didn’t know if and where the mast(s) might fall.

After about 2 hrs of struggle, the mizzen mast also broke from the constant main mast bashing into it and weight. Another 2 hrs or so struggle to secure masts, and sails, get stuff out of the water, and constant fear of being hit/ slammed by unsecured masts, sails, shrouds etc. 

I kept thinking “This is just a bad dream” That makes absolutely no sense! I kept asking Ken why did this happen? After all it’s one of the safest sea-worthy boats that we so love, proud of, and take good care of her!

But this “bad dream doesn’t end” I still struggle to believe this is our reality now…

But - most importantly we both are not injured and alive. 

With the first light, we were again trying to pull up the mizzen mast as its top was in the water, secure more sails (thankfully it is not too windy), and so on.

Then Starlink gave us some grief to start up: we rebooted and changed locations a couple of times, then just gave up and decided to leave it and about 30 minutes later it figured it out, I believe it’s because we are in the middle of the ocean. 

We were a bit nervous as with masts we lost our AIS and VHF and we were not ready yet to deploy our EPIRB. Ken has hopes to get AIS working and maybe even radar, which is currently a bit hard to reach… 

Luckily we are sailing with a lot of friends - in front of us and behind as well as the Vikings Explorers fleet that we met in Cape Verde and they are super helpful. We have already arranged a boat that will give us 200 ltrs of diesel tomorrow. 

We still need much luck to finish this circumnavigation so fingers crossed… 

And I’m not sure if I want to share pictures of our beloved Aquarius when she’s not looking her best like we always strive for… 😢 

So please be kind to her, we will do everything in our power to make her look good again. 

And please forgive us for this worry it’s just 2 of us still no sleep and so many things to take care of, so please forgive us if no response from us yet…