Progress

George is making some progress on the windlass and feeling a bit more optimistic that he will be able to fix it. First off—he was able to release the bolts that held it in place and then pry it loose from the deck. As I mentioned before—the poor access made removal of the nuts and washers quite difficult. He had to do half of the work by feel alone, and with his left hand. Next, we dinghied 2.5 miles to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to pick up the new motor and various other parts he had ordered. While we were there we enjoyed lunch at the club. 

This morning George pulled the anchor up by hand and we had a lovely sail 6 miles S to the Little Bay anchorage. All went well until we turned into the anchorage and attempted to furl the mainsail. It came down about halfway then wouldn’t furl anymore. We raised the sail, tried again and the same thing happened. We made adjustments in the lines, tried again and it happened again. It clearly wasn’t furling properly on the spindle but we couldn’t figure out why. After a few more attempts we eventually dropped the top half the sail on the deck and anchored the boat (by hand, of course.) 

We went to work to try to figure out what was wrong. We collapsed the bimini and George stood on the cockpit table to look inside the end of the boom. (It is a good thing he is tall—even so he can barely reach it.) George discovered that the furling line had slipped out of place. We raised the sail, he moved the line back in place and then furled the sail. All fixed. 

Tomorrow he plans to cut the electrical wires to the windlass and take it apart. 

Picking up the new windlass motor and other parts. 

On our way into town we passed one of the Bahamian sloops that are used in their regattas. They have large sails and not a large keel. They use pry boards with human ballast to keep the boats balanced, similar to what is used with log canoes at home. I found the photo below on the web. 

This is a photo I took two years ago. 

George working on the windlass from inside the cabin.