2020-10-06 22:00:00 UTC:
Day 17 of Timor Sea/Indian Ocean Passage From:Fannie Bay, Darwin, NT To:Diverting to Exmouth (WA). Our position: -18.8842, 106.5067

Progress: [We've made [1645.9]nm (through water) on this passage and have [486]nm (along route) to go.
Since last posting we have made [96.6]nm (through water). We have moved [58.5]nm point-to-point from prior posting] Avg speed since last post:4.0kt, Avg speed for trip to date:4.3kt.

Sailing Conditions [Seas continue to calm, but we are motoring into wind and waves.]

General Comments: [After several days of rough conditions we were finally seeing things calm down and conditions aboard were easing with the promise of some fine sailing days ahead of us.

Around 14:15 WAST (UTC+8) near -18.65,105.85 on Tuesday October 6th, the forestay snapped (the forestay is one of the wires that holds up the mast - it runs from the mast to the front of the boat - it had broken at the top). This left us over 500nm from the nearest land and with the mast unsupported - stopped from falling backwards only by the halyard from the jib/roller-furling (both Jib and main - reefed - were up at the time, and we were sailing at about 55 degrees off wind at 18kt apparent, and in rolly seas). Kyle was on watch at the helm when he heard the bang (as the wire broke), and saw the preventer and shrouds slacken (as the mast fell back a little); he yelled to me to help (I was in bed) and we quickly lowered the sails and moved around a spare halyard to help support the mast. This obviously leaves us unable to sail on.

So what next?

We have secured the mast for now with additional lines, and we *hope* it will remain secure for the long passage ahead. Everything is slacker than wed like. The main temporary support is the spinnaker halyard (spinnaker halyard moved forward to the middle of the forward beam and cranked down on the winch at the mast. The rolled up jib still attached to roller furling with halyard at the top holding up the fuller and preventing it falling ). We will inspect it regularly to check for chafe/issues, but will probably spend most of our watches within the safety of the cabin just-in-case the rig fails and the mast falls (the helm seat is probably the worst location in such an event). Any ideas welcome!

We have numerous spares aboard (including a spare forestay, and various rigging fittings) and may even be able to replace the broken shroud (wire) ourselves - but certainly not at sea - and most likely well need some additional facilities (probably even take the mast down). Even if we could fix everything ourselves wed want a thorough rig inspection before proceeding out on any significant passage (i.e. we need the experts).

So we must change our plans. We have limited fuel supplies and cannot continue the passage all the way to South Australia (nor would we trust our rig situation that far), so we must head for the nearest mainland - Western Australia (WA). This causes issues since we are not permitted to enter WA due to Covid19 restrictions, however we really can see no alternative so will have to deal with the regulations and hope they are kind to us.

Our current goal is to motor to Exmouth (the nearest port to us, some 500nm+ distant from the incident). Between us and Exmouth we have headwinds and waves against us (not ideal for fuel consumption, nor mast security) - alternative destinations are too far, so not an option, and if we sit and wait we will simply drift further away from land.

We have been in touch with the authorities in Exmouth and they are working out what they can do with us - currently we do *not* have permission to enter the harbour. There are no Covid19 rules for our situation I suspect. We do not know yet if we will be allowed to stay with the boat, or be forced into quarantine for 2 weeks in a nearby hotel. We are hoping (but not confident) that they will allow for the time weve been at sea in this unusual situation).

We believe we have sufficient fuel aboard for this passage and require no additional assistance to get to port (as things currently stand). However our fuel is a concern given the conditions and we will need to monitor it closely. At the time of the incident we had full tank and jugs (about 190L). Motoring at 2,200 rpm (below normal) on one motor should use about 1.2L/hour of fuel and get us a speed of about 3kt (in good conditions that would have been 4kt, but we need to err on the side of caution here) being slow and cautious should give us our best chance - we should *just* make it.

Exmouth would not be the harbour of choice from which to fix such problems, it is a small and isolated town/harbour off on a peninsula a long way from any other towns. It is also within the cyclone region that we have been traveling south to escape from (although we are not yet in cyclone season). We do not know what facilities the harbour and local sailing club might have, nor even if there is a rigger within 500miles of the place. If we were to chose a place on this coast for facilities and repairs it would have been Freemantle (near Perth) - but that is way to far for us to reach with our fuel aboard, and with the state of the mast we need to limit travel until we can make things more properly secure.

Thankfully we have boat insurance; earlier this year I found in the small print that rigging is only insured if inspected/surveyed annually - so we *did* get a rigging report/inspection performed back during our haul out in Bundaberg. We should be covered. So at least we know (hope) there is a cap on the expenses in our immediate future. As for everything else, well have to wait and see.]

At: 06:00(AWST) 07-Oct-2020, Outside Temp: 23C (73.4F), Humidity:60%, Water Temp: 29C (84.2F), Course: 98(degT), Speed Over Ground:2.8kt, Wind:9Kt(from:ESE), Cloud Cover:5%, Pressure: 1015hPa, Swell:2m (to:NW)