Day 4 at sea we were starting to come into routines and getting used to be at sea. All was working well onboard and having the dogwatch (00.00-04.00) I was on watch at 02.30 when suddenly the whole boat was hit by something making the engine almost stop (ignition light red) before I managed to get the engine into neutral. In neutral the engine was working well but forward or reverse gear was impossible to engage.Drifting on reduced mainsail and genoa we made a fast overwiev with the searchlight looking for fishingnets,broken paravanes or any other explanation without any findings,and in the engine room gearbox,jackshaft and propellershaft all appeared normal.

Facing the fact that we were without engine drifting on the Atlantic in 28-30kts of wind,we decided to heave to on our parachute anchor to rest and further adress the situation in daylight.

With a good working decklight we managed to prepare the parachute anchor being happy we had practised in easier circumstances before.

The major issue was to have the chain (which is a damper in the middle of the rope) pass freely through the fairlead without getting stocked.

Once we had enough rope out on our deployed parachute (2 wavelenghts away) Dora Mac was riding nicely in headseas and we decided to shut down the engine and rest.

Mentally we started to prepare ourselves for sailing Dora Mac across the Atlantic to closest land.