It was a sobering sound - a loud boom and I scuttled up to the fly bridge of Carinthia. The boom was torn at the part where the preventer was attached to the last 3rd of the boom.

A simple mistake - a terrible ordeal - 700 n.m. from New Zealand in on eof the worst seas and no more methods to raise the main.

Good news - we have plenty of fuel to motor there - or so we hope - Bad news - in order to head directly for Opua we are bashing [ straight into SW waves and winds ] so we need to slow down - 2.5 - 3 knots in these high seas - so our daily average is dropping to 70 nm and even though we are "only" 300 n.m. out it will take us 4 maybe even 5 days to get there.

Every day adds the odds of a weather bomb and further slowing of the trip. So keep you fingers crossed - the waves low and the winds modest. There are currently 24 yachts on the morning Big Momma Net - vessels en route to New Zealand from Tonga -

We are the ones with the broken boom.

Good news is Sparcraft is ready with a replacement boom in Auckland so a new boom will be had before Xmas.

Boom goes the boom -

The adventure continues.