Friday, May 9th – The end of the adventure?

Hello everyone,

This morning, at 0:02 am, Patrick and Fred the captain are on watch on the deck. The sea is little agitated and the wind strength is mild but unstable, when suddenly the boom of the mainsail falls, nearly touching Patric who then sees the mast rocking then slowly falling towards the back of the boat:  » we dismasted! « . The obsession of all sailor! All the crew hears the soft shock of the fall on the deck and feels then the rough stop of the boat. In the minute which follows everybody is on the bridge to verify that no one was hurt and to notice the extent of damages.

The crew kept a cool head and showed an exemplary coordination thanks to the Captain and his second, who took in hand the reassurance operations all night long.

At 9 am we could finally take a well deserved meal, the boat is in order, but the difficult decision to stop our progress towards the gyre must be taken. We cannot continue without sails, the gyre is too far. Patrick and his team agreed on the fact of putting the expedition in stand-by in order to join the closest land : St Martin, in the North of the Antilles.

We are thinking of a possible solution with all the ground team.

To our families: everything is well, the team is very tightly knit and we are in good spirits. We are well aware that joining the seventh continent is a real expedition!