As we were enjoying the sunset this evening, we heard a loud cracking noise from the direction of the mast. On closer inspection it transpired that the 12mm stainless steel pin that holds the gooseneck together had sheared clean off. A disturbing breakage for sure. After rolling the genoa away we brought Sunny Spells head-to-wind and dropped the main. By this time part of the pin had fallen out and the boom was about to fall on the deck!

How lucky that it chose a time when we were drifting with 4 knots of apparent wind and we were there to witness it. As it was getting dark, we just hacked together a temporary fix to secure the boom to the gooseneck and stop it from moving. Our challenge for the next day was to devise a repair that would last 3,543 miles to Nuka Hiva…
After a slow night, close reaching on the headsail only, we got to work first thing to repair the gooseneck. Crawling along at 4 knots under headsail only when we were faced with at least 4 days of windward sailing was just not an option.
While on night watch I scoured my memory banks trying to remember whether I had something, stowed somewhere, that could be used to replace the broken pin. I had a mental picture of a stainless-steel pin of about the same diameter (1/2 inch) but could not place where it had come from or what it was used for. I eventually decided that, if it in fact existed, it was probably in the box of running rigging fittings in the starboard lazarette. Joy of joys when, on checking this morning, I found a pin, 1/2 in diameter and about 6 inches long in that exact spot. It has a 90-degree bend in one end and holes drilled to take split rings. I recalled that it used to secure the old anchor to the old bow roller when I bought Sunny Spells. It was about 1/2 in too long, but otherwise a perfect fit, with a stack of washers scavenged from other places used to fill the excess length.

Once the replacement pin was fitted we hoisted the main and within half an hour it was blowing 18 knots and we were flying along! Both crew members were pretty relieved!
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