The day after leaving Easter Island, one of the worst things which could happen, did happen. We hit some fairly choppy water & strong gusting winds, which brought the main mast crashing down, along with three of the sails.
Fortunately no-one was hurt, with it falling away for the steering platform, over starboard side of the boat. But it was literally all hands on deck, helping to loose off shrouds, retrieve anything we could and secure the lower section of the mast, which was still on the deck, before nightfall.
We woke the next morning to an eariley calm sea, which made the great task of retrieving the mast and sails a lot easier – every member the crew worked under the instructions of captain Clem – who incredibly impressively jumped dived in the water with tools, to release and secure things – whilst the rest of the crew lifted the different mast sections and sails onto the deck, trying to find a safe place for everything.
On the second day we managed to jerry rig up the main sail and jenoa, onto the mizen mast, which although must have looked very odd, gave us a fair amount of sail area to continue sailing with. We celebrated in true infinity fashion with a couple bottles of Cava and a huge feast, sitting out on deck until late, then swimming under the millions of stars. After a stressful few days, the crew really came together and starting to feel more like a family then anything else.
