Maamalni - Leg 12 - Coral Sea #1: MaaMa does the Coral or How Geri lost his rig

Friday's roll call began as usual. The Net controller first puts out a call for emergency or priority traffic... and after several long moments when nothing is heard, announces "Nothing Heard, this is good" and proceeds with the roll call for positions. Akoya of Italy checked in first and then thru the rest of the fleet. On this leg, the fleet was seemingly particularly sparse but it was good to hear the relative positions on winds conditions. The weather router had forecasted some strong and changing winds conditions and we all wanted to know how the wind had been changing. The last boat to check is was Wizard. Wizard is a particularly fast boat and custom designed in South Africa. Geri, Wizard's owner has campaigned this boat on several Cape to Rio Race... that tortuous race from South Africa across the South Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro. For the hell of it, he decided he should do the round the world and chose the ARC as it was very logical given that the Rally would go through his home port. Well, Geri checked in his position as 16.11S 157.51E and MENTIONS at the end of his call that he had been dismasted at 9AM! He then went on in a quiet manner to inquire if anyone had a good contact for an Australian spar manufacturer!

Well, we were blown away! This guy is cool, calm and collected and is now planning on how to deal with the last development. No matter that he is about 1000 miles away from port! Well, here is where being in a rally really really pays off. The fleet responds and asks what Wizard needs. Geri suggests that he could use some diesel as he will be motoring a long way. Now the good news is that Wizard being a fast boat is at the front of the fleet, so most everyone is behind him. So over the course of the next two days four boats deliver their excess fuel to him as well as a spare set of running lights! Now what is typical excess fuel for an ARC passage maker? 100 liters.... or a little more that 25 gallons US! OMG! 400 liters is a good start, but we are hoping that this will provide the distance. MaaMa carries nearly 1500 liters, about 3.5 times the average of the fleet. But we are over 200 miles ahead of Wizard to be any immediate help as we left 2 day early and offer to heave to and wait to supply fuel when she arrives in our vicinity. It is decided that we should continue and we agree, as the rest of the fleet will have enough fuel to spare to get Wizard safe to port.

We then extend an invitation to Wizard for dinner at a restaurant of their choice once they have made it to port to regale us with their tale of the dismasting. Hhhmmm. A little cheeky but it was the best I could come up with. I can't imagine being so calm so far from port with out the big rig. More to follow.