Demasted but all ok

Well i guess everyone has heard by now and mum and dad have had the phone
call no one wants to get! At least they will have been able to let you know
we were all ok!
I was on watch when the rigging went. Standing by the helm having just
handed it over 10 minutes before. We were pushing along nicely at about 9.5
knots over the ground with our main and one reef and staysail, didn't even
have a yankee up. (I think we were even in first place!). We went over the
largest wave we've seen yet and couldn't control the crash down the back of
it. As we were all recovering there was a massive crack and bang and the
other watch leader on deck beside me yelled out 'we've lost the rigging'.
The skipper was woken and everyone else was sent down below while a few of us
remained on deck figuring out what to do next.
The mast had snapped in two places and was flogging up and down with the
upper most bit in the water and at risk of going through our hull.
While Emil and Andy systematically cut through all our standing rigging
starting with the forestay and innerforestay then the shrouds and backstays
the other couple of us cut through all the running rigging.
We lost our stay sail with the innerforestay but we all managed to haul the
boom back in board and recover the mainsail with it. Although not before it
had pulled 2-3 of the stansions out of the deck - not a nice sound! So we're
without part of our gaurdrail along the beam of our starboard side and have
some holes in our deck that are keeping us busy with emptying the bilges and
lockers in the galley every 30 min or so.
Gotta go comms comp in hot demand, we're being escorted by the taiwan coast
gaurd into a port there.
xxx