There is this sailor from the Island of Barbados. His boat broke off a mooring last year and drifted out to the sea. In a stormy night, we heard the call from a french sailor south of Vieques that he just spotted a sailboat that seem abandoned. However he could not say if there was not maybe somebody on board in trouble. He said the boats name and it appeared familiar to us. Joanna remembered that she just have read about that boat and that it was probably this one. We reported the sight to the owner and he was sure it's his boat. With this information we contacted the Coastguard Section San Juan to let them know about and that there probably was nobody on board. They wanted to give it a try with TowboatU.S. to tow it to Puerto Rico but had to give up on that due to the harsh conditions at this time.
The boat then driftet along Vieques all the way west, smashed eventually on the rocks of Puerto Rico and sunk. This poor skipper lost almost everthing. He was able to salvage just a view things from board ... and the mast! However, there was no idea how to get the mast down to Barbados to work on another boat. That thing was 35ft long. We were almost done with our mission in Vieques and had an idea - maybe there is a way to help out.
Our friend, we met already on our Mission in Haiti, Captain Sequoia Sun with S.V. Tandemeer was busy with relief cargo in San Juan at this time and I simply ask him if he wouldn't mind to take a mast on board when he comes over to Vieques. Sequoia didn't hassitate and took it on board. He sailed it from San Juan to Vieques and dropped the Hook right next to us. We rafted up our boats together and transferred the 35ft Mast on Board of Bamba Maru. Big action that day and everything turned out well. We got the unusual cargo on board.
I finally met the owner down in Grenada and handed him the mast of his lost sailboat after 600 nautical miles trough the Caribbean. He came along with a charter catamaran and we rafted up the two multis and did quiet a good job transfering the mast from one boat to the other. Thanks to the Skipper who proofed highly professional skills to balance this big pac and also his Crew worked together as a professional team. Its always a pleasure to work with capable people. Makes the whole thing easy.
PS: For everybody who was wondering about the mast on deck in our earlier videos... no we usualy don’t carry spare masts with us 😂😂😂 here is the reason.. 😅
