Suffice it to say that the sail home was difficult, lumpy and cold, but nothing unusual for Puget Sound in the fall until we noticed this:
Funny, it wasn’t like that when we left. But the bounce in the rigging it created led us to noticing this:
That’s the second spreader on the main mast with a big crack below it. It is hard to know if shattering the knightshead and pulling the bowsprit out of the deck is a cause or effect of the crack, but it is clearly not right. We dropped sails immediately and called the Coast Guard.
But we were also still several hours from home and the resources to fix this if it came down dramatically. So we called the Coast Guard every 30 minutes to update our position and let them know we were well. They waited for our call, ready to push the Go!Help! button if we needed it.
We didn’t. It took a while, but by 8:30 we were all fast at our dock.
At least we broke it like we meant it.
