Message from zingaro...
James and Kim have a Youtube channel and sent this message out last night.
At approximately 2:30am on December 23rd the starboard
hull of Zingaro separated from the bridge
deck and started tearing away from the
boat.
We were approx. 40nm off the South coast of Hawaii's big island with 30kt winds and 20' seas.
Over the coarse of the next two hours we managed to wrap
Spectra lines around the
boat and take them to the winches, but with the big seas the lines were parting and cutting into the boat.
The cost guard was notified approx. 4:45am, and they offered a helicopter
rescue, which we hesitantly declined. The CG
cutter Oliver Berry was briefed and scheduled to depart at 13:00 to assist and possibly transfer us to the boat. Due to sea state the ETA to cover the 170nm was 10pm-3am.
The order was given to 'prepare to abandon ship', and we packed up everything we could (including our
water maker) into three bags.
At approximately 9:30pm the
cutter arrived (they themselves
lost an
engine and had many sick crew members from motoring at 23kts into the huge seas) By that time we were able to start the port
engine and
motor into the Lee of the island, thereby reducing the sea state significantly.
During our scary
repair phase, we snapped off the stbd strut and bent the prop shaft 75 deg, so the stbd engine was
lost.
Upon the Oliver Berry's arrival it was decided that the sea state was still too high to attempt a tow, and we would continue motoring through the night until it could be reassessed at first light. During the night, the CG transferred 15 gallons of
diesel to us via their
tender. A bit dangerous in itself. Glow sticks were tied to the jugs in case they were to fall into the
water.
We managed to limp in to the Honokohau
fuel dock with the CG escort. They were wonderful, and said they were watching our episodes on the way down to us. They told us we were very professional in the way we handled it, and we were actually calming THEM down during our hourly reports over
VHF.
Kim and i are proud to say we saved the boat. We worked together like a week old machine, with no time for anything but action. We thought for SURE we would be abandoning Zingaro, so for Her to be in the marina safe... I'm very proud. We never called mayday and didn't pop the
EPIRB. We did what we needed to do in a crisis. That said, we learned a bit, and we'll go over that too.
We owe most of the success to the USCG. Without them we would have been in a whole lot more trouble. Everything they did was on point and professional. I couldn't have been more impressed.
Unfortunately the boat is in horrible shape. We will talk more of our plans in the Livestream Sunday.
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