Good to talk to you this morning. You are right that we should be in touch every time we sail - on this particular occasion we didn't 'log in' with the coast guard either (which we usually do for long trips), so no one knew where we were, and if we had sunk........... A lesson learned.
Anyway we are in Breakwater Marina in Townsville, and will be here for at least a week.
Have made quite good progress this morning. We had Staylock rigging fittings on board, sufficient for all 3 stays broken. Also one length of new wire rope which is sufficient for the two shorter stays. So we have been measuring and fitting them. Once we have got them up the mast will be more secure and G can go to the top of the mast to undo the top broken stay and inspect the nav light which looks as though it is missing - a top cover was found on the deck.
As I write we have a metal worker on board discussing pulpit and other bits of re-shaping, and modifications to the sleeve of the genoa furler. It is an Amel special so not replaceable here, and anyway only the bottom foot or two is damaged so we hope a new bit can be made and attached. People have been very helpful (and everyone has a tale to tell of major incidents afloat) and as I think I mentioned, a customer in a chandlers we were in yesterday took us under his wing and drove us all over the place hunting for rigging wire of the right size and a metal worker. He has a couple of boats in the marina, and a house in Brisbane, and is the sort of person who knows everyone (a S. African as it happens!).
As to what happened, we were about 26 miles offshore, sailing for another island between here and Cairns. No moon, very dark. G saw lights (but no AIS signal, so not a big ship), and a green light so all seemed well to pass starboard to starboard. Obviously misjudged the distance as he was down below when it happened. The most awful noise you can imagine. I had been asleep, and came up to see a large fishing boat with both outriggers out, well and truly tangled in our rigging and making terrible noises as it clashed against our hull. Fortunately we were not as tangled as we looked (I thought we probably had our keel an prop tangled in his nets as well), and were able to put the engine on and reverse out. At that stage we didn't know that our mast light wasn't working any more, so the skipper of the fishing boat didn't know where we were and thought we might have sunk. I heard him on the radio and we put our motoring lights on and were able to tell him and the authorities that we were still afloat, uninjured, and didn't seem to be taking on water.
G had realised that we had no support to the mast on the starboard side, and did a great job using the halyards to stabilize things.
The fishing boat only had one guy on board, and was obviously busy with his nets and hadn't seen us at all. He followed us most of the way to Townsville, and the coastguard called up every hour. We motored our way very gingerly the 26m to Magnetic Island, the nearest safe anchorage. The sea was fairly calm and there wasn't much wind, but nevertheless every time a wave hit us from the side the whole rig swayed alarmingly; really scary. Arrived at anchor at about 2.30; did some more securing of things, had a brandy, and dropped into bed at about 4am. G up at 7am to have a look at things in daylight.
You know that feeling when you really don't want to face the day, but want to stay under the blankets?! G had thought that the hull was cracked when he had looked by torchlight, and I was dreading the inspection. Well, the hull is untouched though the rubber rubbing strip is very battered and torn. Bits of ragged rigging wire were dangling everywhere, plus the bent remains of the poling out system, a completely tattered genoa was flapping in the wind (we weren't able to furl it properly), and the railing round the pulpit was bent right over. It all looked much better when tied up so that nothing was flapping. Yesterday morning we move the few miles round to this marina (a 5.15 start to get the tide as the entrance is very shallow) and were able to start work.
So that is the sorry saga, but we now realise just how lucky we were to have got off so lightly. The mast must have stayed up with sky hooks. And of course the fact that we weren't injured.
