Sometimes you just gotta laugh

We left Marco Island this morning expecting 10 - 15 knots of wind from the northeast and smooth seas. I never would have guessed how our day was going to go. We had our 15 knots out of the northeast, but we had 2 foot seas from the northwest left over from last nights northwest wind. Two foot seas are fine, but that was just the average wave. We would get 3 - 4 foot seas on a regular basis. Then as we started getting close to Gulivan Bay we started getting waves coming from the east. Now we have large waves from the northeast with other waves coming from the east  making for a confused sea state. Once we got south to Gulivan Bay we needed to turn east to make our way to Indian Key Pass. We turned into the smaller easterly waves, so now we have the bigger waves on our beam (side), not much fun.

We were sailing along on an easterly course bashing through wave after wave (the wind was now right out of the east. I heard a loud crash and saw our port spreader land on the deck and the upper shroud go limp. I thought well the mast is coming down. Well it's going to come down. Well why isn't coming down? Oh, the lower shroud is still hanging on! I quickly dropped the main, then furled the genny. The mast was hanging on. I jumped up on deck and grabbed a spare halyard and ran it over to the side and secured it as a temporary shroud. We were still bashing through the waves. Morgan's bow would lift and then drop into the next trough and the spray would reach all the way back to the back of the cockpit. I took the spinnaker halyard and ran it over to the side and secured it. Now we have two halyards as a temporary shroud. So now I am feeling pretty comfortable that the mast is going to be okay.

We had 10 1/2 miles to go to get to the protection of Indian Key Pass and calm waters. It took us about 3 hours to make it. After awhile I just stood in the front of the cockpit with my hands holding onto the hatch, letting the spray hit me full on (you couldn't escape it anyway) and just laughing out loud. Sometimes in adversity you just have to laugh because you can't do anything else anyway.

We are anchored in a quiet safe place tonight. Tomorrow we will start calling around to find out where the closest place is to make repairs.

Missing spreader. Two halyards as a temporary shroud.

The spreader laying on the deck.