Tragedy on the Pride

Sept. 05 - 06, 2005

The Demasting of the Pride

So, whether or not you have heard the rumors, I am telling you they are true. Pride II has been completely demasted. Here is the story. On Monday at 3:45 pm, the second of two similiar squalls hit Pride II. The first had heavy rains and wind up to 45 knots that made the boat heel till the water was up to the tops of the bulwarks. We quickly struck the jib topsail, but before the sail was completely down, the squall was over. In mild conditions, we reset the sail and continued on. 10 minutes later, the second squall hit and the boat heeled again. I was standing on the starboard side of the quarter deck when I heard a loud crunch of wood and saw the bowsprit, jibboom, and all its sails go tearing of off to port. I have never seen the crew rush onto deck so quickly and we all looked to the captain for orders. He called for the striking of the main and we rushed to comply, but it had just barely hit the deck before we heard the noise that sailors never wish to hear, the slow, loud crunching of a wooden mast. Looking forward and up, the foremast twisted to port and fell. Bhodi and I, along with most of the crew were still on the starboard side, and we pushed back against the rail and aft, watching as it fell along the port side of the ship. It collided with the main and the mast broke 30 feet off the deck, and came down with a crash little more than 6 feet from us. Our first concern was for the crew. Two of us were on port side when it fell. Soon they crawled out from under the sails. Amazingly, all of us were accounted for and none of us had sustained even the slightest injury. The masts had missed the wheel and rudder and we still had engine and steering capability. It took us 5 hours of hard work to gather the wreckage alongside and get underway. We arrived in St. Nazairre, France the following morning. As for the damage to the vessel, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. We will continue to post when we know more. We are okay and glad to still be here.

~Erin and Bhodi

(Captions to come)

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