19:37.7S 38:30.6W... en route Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fri day the 29th June 2012.

Providence
Matt Stafford and Rohan Buckley
Tue 3 Jul 2012 20:37

BANG!  What the…..?!  Not the sort of sound you want to hear at 1am in the dark.  It was Thursday morning, Rohan’s watch, and he soon found that the forestay was billowing out so far that the headsail looked like a cruising chute.  Something wasn’t quite right, and soon Matt and Tina were summoned.  They’d both heard the awful noise anyway.

Turned out the forestay, which is the cable inside the foil (furling gear), had parted such that the only thing holding up the headsail was the genoa halyard.  Despite getting dipped in the South Atlantic the foiling gear and sail were lowered and secured on deck but unfortunately severe damage was sustained to both in the process.

At the time we did not know how stable and secure the mast was since we had lost the forestay.  Needless to say it was a stressful time for all until we were able to secure the two halyards forward as a make-shift forestay.  Once we had settled things down we realized that there was no risk to the mast as the shrouds and baby-stay were keeping it strong, and we set off once again south to Rio.

Without recounting the whole episode, not an experience we would like to repeat soon.

All is well and with a combination of the engine, and sailing when we can, should see us in Rio de J by Wednesday.  Rohan’s family and friends from Tasmania start arriving for birthday celebrations on Thursday so we are under a bit of time pressure.. no worries!

Rohan, Matt and Tina

PS.  The lack of gas situation……. Despite some grumpiness due to the lack of hot coffee, all is well on the eating front.  It’s amazing how