Windlass Woes

Dead Calm. Sweet.

The Sea of Abaco was like a large piece of glass on Friday when we left Marsh Harbor for a short little sail (technically...we motored there because there was zero wind) to Lynyard Cay. Lynyard is the jump off point to head to the next group of islands. (Dont forget...there are over 700 islands in the Bahamas) Once we got there, we ran into our buddies Lindsey & Matt from s/v Kindred Spirit and Matt & M.E. from Gone Global Adventures. Yay!!! Great reunion. PLUS...the other boats we crossed the Gulf Stream with...s/v Pegasus & s/v Java were there! We were all about to make a big crossing together again! Just a short distance away in Little Harbor, our friends Brittnay & Dolby from s/v Great Mysterious were also in the big flotilla heading to Eleuthra.

We left Abaco & head south to the little island in the bottom right corner...Eleuthra via the Atlantic & North Providence Channel

 

There were 9 boats total that did the crossing that day. And what a great crossing it was! Last year, this same crossing, I was sea sick for the 1st time & we had 10-12ft seas. It's a 10 hour crossing. That's a long time to be sick. This time....PERFECTION. The Atlantic Ocean was as nice as she is capable of being & we sailed almost the whole way. Engines off.....sails up....cruising!!

Malaika in her glory.

 

Ok... I said "perfection" but we did have a glitch while pulling the anchor in Lynyard. Our wonderful 60 pound Manson anchor holds Malaika in place like a champ but sometimes it buries itself soooo much....it's hard to pull her up. We have a windlass winch, which means that when I step on a button, this amazing winch, mechanically pulls up the anchor. As opposed to pulling up 90 feet of chain & anchor by hand. It's a wonderful invention. Well...Saturday morning my sweet winch just couldn't pull up the anchor by herself. Long story short...the windlass stopped working!!! OMG!! This is not a disaster....you can always pull the anchor up & put it down by hand...it's just A LOT harder. AND....a windlass winch is expensive. I thought I put too much stress on her & she just broke. Of course, Captain Scott was not happy when I yelled to him from the bow that I just broke the windlass. We were very close to another boat at this point & needed to get the anchor up so we could turn...Scott had to run up there, I took the helm, & he pulled up the anchor by hand. Ugh...not a great way to start a 10 hour journey. I was in tears about it. The good news is.....when I explained to our friends on s/v Pegasus what happened..(they have lived on their sailboat for 15 years), Dean knew exactly what was wrong. The clutch in the winch just needed to be tightened up. It took Scott less than 60 seconds to fix. Yay!!! Thank You Pegasus!! Of course, we didn't know about the quick fix until Sunday morning so I was upset for the whole day. I just have to keep in mind that "cruising" is really just fixing your boat in exotic locations. There is always something.

Malaika anchored at Royal Island

Now we're in Eleuthra. We hiked & snorkeled today. The windlass is fixed. All is good.

Sailor Jib

 

Love,

Michelle, Scott & Jib

 

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