We are making our way to the Galapagos just South of the rhumb line, sailing or motoring light or non-existent winds.

Bristol Rose's drama started around 2300 on the 13th February. Having encountered consistent light winds they had as much sail up as possible when they were caught out in a squall. We understand that the spinnaker ended up in the water and the sheet caught around the prop. We are not sure if she was motor sailing but in view of what unfolded, this seems likely.

As a result of the incident both prop and rudder were jammed fast and the yacht totally disabled. We were about 25 miles ahead of them at that time and they could not raise us on VHF.

Every morning at 0900 there is a Pacific cruiser SSB net and we heard Robert's call for assistance. We discussed the problem and he decided he would launch the dinghy to better look at the mess. Things were worse than feared as it was the propeller which was jamming the rudder. The force of the rope around the turning prop had sheared the shaft attachment and pulled the prop backwards into the rudder.

Robert put out a Pan Pan call on VHF but there was no response. By now we were 110 miles away from them. Upwind and up current it would take us 40 hours to get back to them. We were the only vessel with whom they could communicate and as they don't have a satellite phone, they could not alert the rescue services. 

We emailed the World ARC rally control and followed up with a phone call to their staff in Ecuador. For several hours there were numerous phone calls and emails. We spoke at length to MRCC Falmouth who co-ordinate rescues and they involved the US Coastguard and RCC Panama.

It would be more than 24 hours before a vessel could reach Brisbane Rose and by now there was inevitably seasickness onboard. However WARC managed to track down a rescue craft and this was dispatched at 1630 local time but did not reach Bristol Rose until almost 2 in the morning. At that time conditions were too rough to begin a tow.

We have spoken to Robert at 9 am this morning (Monday) and he confirmed the tow started about an hour earlier. The vessel is a Panama Coastguard patrol craft and they are being taken to a port with repair facilities, although because of the language barrier, they are not sure exactly where!

Hopefully the repairs will be completed rapidly and they will join us in the Galapagos as soon as possible