No one expects to hear that their friends are dismasted, lost at sea or ship-wrecked.  When we heard via email that veteran cruisers Egon Brandell and Sylvija Springis and their muscular Peter Ibold designed Hedonist 44 ketch Magnum Bonum, fondly called the “Big Potato” in honor of the potato farm where they built the boat in Sweden,  had been dismasted and eventually towed to a safe harbour (thanks to their hand held radio), we did not believe it.  The boat was strong. The crew was healthy, smart and very experienced. The season was right to sail south to Buenos Aires. And after the Wild Coast of South Africa, this continental shelf should be a breeze. A gentle breeze.  Smart, long-time cruisers should be fine approaching the coast.  Here's part of the story....

"On April 17th, 1998, just one day from the end of a 26 day passage from their last safe harbor at St Helena island, the weather took an unrecognizable turn.  “We saw this very black cigar shaped cloud approaching. Above it was a boiling brown, black and beige cloud mass shaped like a big wool hat. It was ominous and we knew it would not be without a big wind,” wrote Sylvija.  “We took down all but the small jib on our inner forestay. most of our sails.  Soon we had to turn and run downwind with no sails. The winds later reported were 70 knots, but we had higher where we were. This is just the kind of situation we all feared and planned for off South Africa. It was unbelievable.” With no warning, a giant wave hit Magnum Bonum and took off the mast. “It was as if the mast stayed in place and the hull moved out from under it. The mast came down on the deck and then slid down the deck into the sea where the stays and boom kept it attached.” The mast became a wrecking ball on a pendulum, ramming the port side of the boat amidships. Egon wasted no time unscrewing the turnbuckles one at a time to release the mast. With few hand holds remaining on deck, they took turns holding onto one another as they hammered, hacked and heaved the rigging they had worked for decades to obtain and maintain go sinking into the sea....."

While in Trinidad, I worked on this story with Silvija and so far, we haven't taken it all the way to the published stage. They wrote an article in Swedish for their yacht club newsletter in Stockholm, complete with Egon's fantastic drawings.  Maybe now that they are back on land in Sweden, I can talk Silvija into publishing the article with me somewhere!   If we do, I'll add it to the published works list on the Writing page.  Write me about your stories and I'll post them as journal entries too, or add them as a "post" right here.