Kruzenshtern out!

Unhappy to see this, but apparently the foremast broke on the Russian ship, the Kruzenshtern, and the ship has had to pull out of the race. It is such a beautiful thing...

This late breaking news tidbit courtesy of the Bermuda Sun, as follows:
Kruzenshtern pulls out of Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge
TUESDAY, JUNE 16: The Russian naval vessel Kruzenshtern has been forced out of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge after breaking its foremast.

No one was injured in the accident and the craft - the largest in the race - is now heading to a U.S. port.

Bermudian residents aboard the Kruzenshtern are Daren DeSilva, 26, Terrance Sousa, 24, Matthew Outerbridge, 20, Anthony Bailey, 16, Raymond Raynor, 17, Donald Smith, 17, Nesta Eugene Wellman, 17, and Raymond DeShields, whose age was not given.

The ship had to withdraw from the race as continuing could endanger the crew and cause further damage to the vessel.

A frontal system from this morning has passed us now and we are in very light north-westerly wind, which is expected to turn more northerly.


HOWEVER - much better than the news from the 1984 race, when, 78 miles out of Bermuda, one of the ships hit what was probably a rogue wave/squall line combinataion and, as I understand it, basically 'sailed to the bottom of the ocean'. The set of events were rather a surprise, they couldn't get the sails down quickly enough and went over. Wikipedia says:

In the early hours of 3 June she was hit by a sudden squall and a large wave, possible a rogue wave, and was knocked down onto her side. Although the ship had been converted to a sail training and charter cruise ship, she had retained the main cargo hatch from her days as a commercial vessel. When she was knocked down the main hatch was breached and water flooded into the interior of the ship. She sank in less than a minute, with the loss of 19 of her 28 crew members.

People here remember it vividly - a lot of the crew were young, they had lodged with families around the island for their time here and quite won hearts. I heard more than once from Bermudians that they haven't had the stomach for such racing since. (I'm that same way about watching shuttle launches - used to love watching them, but after seeing Challenger blow up I can't stay in the same room with the TV coverage on until I know they are up safely.)

Here is an article from Time on the 1984 tragedy: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951176-1,00.html