Uh oh!

Everyone is safe and the boat is fine. They look to repair her in a few days and continue north. This was copied from the Amistad facebook page...

-----As we reported earlier a rigging failure in heavy seas diverted the Schooner Amistad to Port Canveral in Florida! The Amistad experienced a rigging failure while sailing heavy seas on April 14th off the Florida Coast resulting in an emergency call to Port Canaveral. The ship commanded by Cpt. Sean Bercaw reached safel...y the harbor through the night and docked in the morning of April 15th in Port Canaveral.

The failure of a metal fitting holding two bobstays to the bowsprite was caught by Captain Bercaw while developing and a quick change of course and immediate stabilization of the compromised rigging have prevented the ship from any further damage to the rigging.

A very similar failure of a bowsprite rigging resulted in dismasting of another Baltimore Clipper - the Pride of Baltimore II while sailing in Bay of Biscay on September 5th in 2006.---


Horrifying! I personally spoke to a crew member and they said the rig did not come down and they caught the broken pieces early, no big dramatic event took place or anything like that and the crew was headed to dinner with the CEO of the company... On that note...

HERE is a link to a really good news story from when we were in Cuba.

In other news, I got paid from Quinnipiack! On the day I was told I would be, in the full amount I was promised, directly into my bank account! I LOVE THIS COMPANY!

Picture above: Me teaching Univ. of Mass. student Jaresiah Desrosiers how to clean a Mahi Mahi on board the Amistad in between Great Inagua, Bahamas and Matanzas, Cuba.