On the 1st of September we left with the flood north. Well prepared and even with food for our longest sail so far we were in best spirits. Waves were not too bad and wind was in good strong but manageable condition. When you leave Borkum there is the official north-west waters and then there is the “inner passage” a little more south. Since water depth were all at least 5 meters, mostly above 10 we decided to take the southerly inner waters – because it is shorter. I was inside the boat when Benni yelled at me to come out.
The depth sounder suddenly jumped from 7 meters to 80cm. Before we knew what was going on the keel hit ground for the first time. When we looked to our right hand side we could see waves braking. Being 5km out in open water. Shallow waters where there should not be any. The keel hit the ground again and again. The waves were lifting us up and slamming us back into the ground. I told Sophie to go into the boat, because it is the safest place and went straight after her. Benni stayed outside trying to do something – but there was little he could do. After maybe 30 seconds he tells me that the mast was broken. This was bad. The water got so shallow that the boat was now laying sideways, waves slamming over it every 15 seconds. We took quite some water and when we closed the main hatch (which was basically thick Plexiglas) outside it looked like an aquarium. Sophie yelled that she had cell phone reception. And since our radio saw so much water that it did not work anymore, we decided to call for rescue. It was very scary but we were super lucky not have been hit by the falling mast and having cell reception although being kind of far away from land already. When the women on the other end asked me if our life was in immediate danger and I replied “yes it is” – without hesitating – I realized how bad it was. A helicopter that we saw half an hour before the accident – doing some maneuvers – actually came by and was surrounding us to keep our position until Search and Resucue could come towards us. We thought we would be rescued by a helicopter and had to leave the boat behind. After five minutes the waves pushed us into the actual inner water way that we were actually looking for. The boat was now upright again and the waves were not braking anymore. Rescue was on its way and the radio was working again. The situation was not as life threatening anymore. Since the mast was in pieces but still attached to the boat by its rigging there was no way of turning on the engine. The propeller would have gotten stuck within seconds in all these ropes.
After maybe 45 min. the rescue ship was there and since we were in deeper waters they could get close enough to actually throw us a towing rope. They towed us back into Borkum harbor. It took two hours. Nobody was insured. Fuck.
