Explorking

We used the main halyard and the electric winch on our mast to pull up the rest of the anchor — 2 feet at a time. We then decided it would be best to change our plan of going to Calabash Bay and instead head back to Georgetown.

Getting into Elizabeth Harbor was quite the nailbiter because, with a fairly strong easterly wind, the swell was quite large. We made it through the cut, running out engines at nearly full throttle to get through as quickly as possible and trying to maintain steerage.

In February 2019, only 12 months prior, we were cruising in Eleuthera, which is also in the Bahamas, when our windlass jammed, causing the chain stripper to get caught in the gypsy (Deja-Vous). At that time, it was the windlass that nearly tore out of the base. We headed right back to Fort Lauderdale and hired MultiTech Marine Services to fix the damage.

MultiTech Marine Services removed the windlass, repaired the fiberglass, filled the holes, and re-installed the windlass and the chain pipe (to which the chain stripper is attached) in April 2019. Departing from Florida on December 12, 2019, we only got 74 days of use from the time MultiTech Marine Services re-installed the windlass. Or, more precisely, 16 anchorings (is that even a word?).

From the time we departed Fort Lauderdale on December 12, 2019, to the time of “the incident” on February 24, 2020, the windlass sunk into the fairing material, causing the chain stripper to come closer to the gypsy. The last bit of movement, which caused the gypsy to collide with the chain stripper, was caused by the rotting base — water seeped into the core of the base, where MultiTech Marine Services did not seal it, causing the base to become softer.

We used our Dremel, and the Dremel stand to machine a temporary chain stripper out of Starboard. The temporary chain stripper should allow us to raise the anchor a couple of times until we make it back to Florida.