Exactly at midnight, under a full moon, it happened.

A loud "bang" sounded through the boat, followed by a yell from the night watch in the cockpit. And not much after, an "All hands on deck" call was made. The boom broke.

The boom is the pole which holds the lower side of the mainsail, and is fastened to the mast by the gooseneck. Faithful readers might remember the "Gilligan's Gooseneck" story from 2004 (see link about 2004 emails in the sidebar of the blog). The boom is essential to keeping the mainsail flying. It broke on the mast side, before the attachment point of the vang. It is therefore very unlikely that a "Gilligan's Boom" story will develop, however, we keep thinking of what could be done.

It obviously was a job of Klabautermann, what else could it be? Klabautermann, for those who don't know him already, is the little gnome well known to the German seafarers, who is present on all vessels going to sea and is responsible for all the bad things happening aboard. And if you are in doubt, just think about the midnight timing and the full moon! In retrospect we think it is no surprise it happened, given that the blessing of the boat was missing, in particular the part where we drink this excellent Hawaiian brandy. But so it goes on a boat - skip a step, and the penalty will be right there.

We secured the pieces of the boom so they would not go overboard, and then lowered the mainsail and removed it from the mast. We are now sailing with the spinnaker alone, still going along at 7+ knots. As long as we can go downwind we will be ok. However, the boat is now doing a lot of rolling; the mainsail was very helpful in stabilizing the boat. Hopefully this will not revive the seasickness theme...

Nobody got hurt in the process; I am glad to report that the operation went smoothly and professionally. As mentioned, repair is unlikely due to the position of the break. We think about raising the storm sail to keep more control on the rolling motion. While it is not bad right now being on rather flat water, with the much higher waves expected near Hawaii it might get ugly.

Since we are making good progress on the spinnaker alone, I will recommend to the fleet that all take their mainsail down, in particular all in our Division A. I will see how many takers I will find who follow the suggestion.

I took some photos and will try to see if one low-resolution picture can be transmitted and posted, but I cannot promise it.

And what happened after all was cleared up? Like little kids in the sandbox fighting over a shovel, the watch was fighting over who gets to drive first! Oh dear. Excitement is still high; everyone is in a good mood.

Aloha,
Ulli

position at 0320PDT : 29N23, 136W17, COG 240M, SOG:7.5kn