We made it to Colon on July 1st, after our June 23rd departure. Altogether a little bit more than 8 days for the passage, which is way better than originally expected.
I wouldn’t qualify weather conditions as being rough, but let’s say muscular: 20 to 25 knots from the east, with seas increasing as we were travelling west. Well, I realized you can get waves in our small Caribbean Sea. After day 3, swell over 12 ft. was the norm, and I trust we’ve seen several 15 ft., may be even 18 ft. waves.
The junk behaved incredibly well in these conditions, with numerous surfs over 10 knots. We even reached 13 knots. The vessel is extremely seaworthy. At least the hull. See below re rig. Out typical day was 180NM, and the best we did was 190NM. Almost 8 knots mean speed over 24 hours was very satisfying, especially on 17 tons+ vessel.
Things started to get a bit rough on the night of the 28th, when we lost our mizeen mast. Literally chopped off at deck level, in only 13 knots of apparent wind. The Oregon Pine wood got rotten on 2 sides, at deck level, due to the lack of a proper boot on deck. This leads me to think about the pros and cons of self-supporting masts. I still think they are great. They save you from the whole rumble of stays check, cable conditions, etc… When you lose one, a kitchen knife is enough to cut the sheets that still hold it. Your rig will hardly damage your hull.
On the other end, there is no warning. There’s nothing you can check. You can’t predict what will happen.
The second big issue is that these masts are one off. There is no mast supermarket available when you need to replace one. You only have the option to build another one. We’ve been checking around in Colon city for potential replacement, in aluminum, wood, or FRP but without luck.
Following Murphy’s law, the next morning after losing the mast, we lost the main sail yard (the upper batten, the one that holds the whole sail). It literally cracked in 2 pieces. We had several bamboo replacement battens, but no yard.
Anyway, in such situation, there is no way anymore to carry any sail. We were 300 NM from Panama, we had an engine and lots of diesel. I didn’t even bother to sort out a solution and we finished the trip on engine.
We had 2 bad shaking days at 4 knots speed in 15 ft. seas, but it’s OK. As mentioned, the hull is extremely solid and takes the sea very well. Moreover, the crew did not show signs of nervous breakdowns, so why worry?
Without a replacement mast, the Pacific crossing is seriously jeopardized. The best option we found is to ship our junk on a cargo ship. There is a pick up for sailing yachts in Golfito, pacific coast of Costa Rica, on the 16th of july. This is our next stop. Tomorrow we will go through the canal and head towards CR.
Stay tuned.
