Update day 58: critical situation!
January 1st, Conrad contacted his technical team to say that the primary structural forestay had disconnected at the bottom, taking the sail with it with 50-60knots at the time it happened. This forestay is very important to keep the mast up and the axis keeping it attached is gone for an unknown reason.
The sail had not unfurled when that happened but with the gusts, it quickly did and the boat was pinned on its side in a gust. Foresight Natural Energy spent a few long hours on its side with high risks of losing the mast given the force put on it with the big sail in the water.
Conrad was ready, drysuit and harness, to try to go on deck but the conditions were too dangerous to get out so he had to wait for the biggest part of the storm to pass. He currently has the sail shredding itself in the wind as a flag from the top of the mast but the risk of dismasting has reduced. He managed to get out to put a piece of 12mm dyneema as a supplementary stay from mast head to bowsprit and has 2 other lower forestays in place and a triple reefed main.
He's now waiting for wind to die and the sea to calm to climb mast, cut down pull the stay close to the mast, clear the sail and the put the cable back. This is a very complicated job and the weather needs to be a lot calmer for Conrad to do it in safe conditions.
Thanks for all your support, it helps him a lot through this very difficult time.
