Never saw it coming. The only good thing was we were sailing. We were headed West toward Roatan about 14 miles off shore 2 hours after dark and motorsailing, the wind picked up and we shut the engine down. 5 minutes later CRASH!. The bow rode up on something to the keel, stopped instantly and the boat started to roll. I let the main and headsail sheets loose and ran forward to see what we hit. As I got near the bow a branch with leaves hit me in the face. Not knowing what to do I just stood there, listened and looked around feeling the boat rotate. The boat continued to rotate breaking branches on it's way. My hope was that we would rotate around and free ourselves so I just gave it time, standing, listening and watching. The admiral brought me a flashlight (unfortunately a new moon) and 'Holy Shit!, there were branches and leaves all over the deck. I started to fear that a branch would catch between the keel and rudder, hold us tight and bend the Maxprop but just stood there holding on to the rigging as we were helpless and hoped for the best.

Finally the boat slid along the tree leaving it behind as branches broke and leaves fell to the deck. The Admiral hit the MOB button, something I never thought of at the time.

OK, we were free and drifting sideways in 12 knots of wind. I reefed the headsail, tightened the sheet and we started to move. I wanted start the engine but was concerned that the Maxprop might be bent. Aw hell, at some point we need to start it so I did, put it in gear and slowly raised the rpm's. No vibration and no problems and we continued on our way.

The next morning we reported the incident and the trees location on all the area morning SSB nets. It was May with many boats heading west through the area toward the Rio Dulce. Needless to say there were many interested in the experience and position of the tree.

An experience neither of us will ever forget. Good thing we had a encapsulated keel and very strong hull.