Beaufort to sea- BAD NIGHT ONE

We were sailing along doing our thing then with little warning on night two- November 2 at 2:30 am I got a call from Charles waking me (unusual). He asked me to  reset the main breaker.  The main was not going in fully but when reset it went back completely.
 I got back on deck (left at 12:30 am) and there I heard and saw an ugly sight. Our roller furler drum  had broken loose from the 5/8 "clevis pin so the jib which was shortened in these 20 kt winds, was swinging side to side trying to knock Charles overboard.  I was deressing to hear that the drum clanging around had also pulled out our new bow pulpit from the screws, wires port & starboard hanging but still connected. The full moon was a welcome help.

He tied the wild assembly to the portside rigging hoping that the storm sail assembly we have which is not an actual inner forestay (but rather connection to windlass base and halyard above) would keep the mast from falling over.  I tied the sheets tighly to a cleat near the main winch. Things got a little calmer in time.   As we got closer inland the wind dropped to 8 kts instead of 20-25 kts, less bounce from the waves.

  We had a short sail out, thank God. It tried to furl even more when all heck broke loose.

 

 Furler gone from it's usual place!

  .

 Frayed furling line

 fraying, surprised it stayed connected.

As the sail assembly raised and lowered with every wave it dug into the deck.

 new bow pulpit tearing from deck.

 

We headed inland toward Jacksonville  Fl to a marina where we stayed last year .  Port side tie so the rigging would be reached.  The pictures tell a big story.  We got there at 11:30 am after a sleepless night.  This marina is on a river with a very swift current, plus a large ferry moving next door making wakes with great regularity.  The courtesy car from last year was non-existant this year, but Enterrpise car rental did well.  We visited two West Marines to resupply. We bought new lines for the furler. We could not get the missing clevis pin as they only sold a 1/2 inch but we had a new dock mate on a 72 foot sailboat. The owner gave us the much needed pin. AWESOME.

At this point we are good to go.  It would be nice to have a rig inspection but we are trying to get going and the tide suggests a noon time departure. So off we go, back outside, nearly new!  Charles is amazing.