While we probably could have spent our entire 10 days at Leverick and never been bored, we did have this big floating hotel room with sails that was begging to get out and stretch its legs. The captain (me) was entirely too nice to the crew (my family) so we got a very late start to Anegada.

By the time we got Anegada the only available balls were in water too shallow for a monohull that draws 5'9", especially one with a miscalibrated depth gauge. While I’m not real fond of anchoring, we first sailed in the BVI when the only mooring balls were at the Bitter End, so I’ve done my share.

However working around the anchoring field with a depth gauge that is showing negative numbers (no I wasn’t aground) was a bit nerve wracking. This was only the start of a fairly nerve racking anchoring experience.

My younger, and much stronger than me, son was on the bow getting ready to drop using the windlass. He pressed the button but no response. Neither did the convenient windlass button in the cockpit do anything, though the gauge showing the amount of chain out was showing a bunch of random numbers.

First thing to check when having windlass issues is the breaker, even though the windlass had never engaged. I go below and see 2 unlabeled breakers that haven’t tripped but I reset them anyway but that didn’t get the windlass going. So we prepare for a manual drop but can’t get the windlass unlocked. We pull approximately 30 feet of chain out of the locker, reach over the pulpit to get the anchor out over the roller (it had been placed on top of the roller which is something I didn’t catch at the base) and drop.

I had been reluctant to head too far out in the anchoring area because of the depth gauge issue but it was obvious that I needed to reset further up from a couple of boats. At this point we called the Moorings who said to check the breaker (which I thought I had) and basically had no suggestions as to how to unlock the windlass.

We asked if they could send some assistance or perhaps find some at Anegada, but got told that Moorings doesn’t provide service to Anegada. On previous trips I recalled signing a waiver to this effect but that wasn’t in my skinny packet of information so I guess I was hoping that policy wasn’t in place.

So, still with no windlass and the lock in place, we began the process of hauling up the anchor and 30 feet of chain. Basically we did it by clever use of the snubber. We’d pull in some chain, snub it to keep it from running back out, relocate the snubber and repeat.

By the time we got this done my big strapping son was reduced to looking like a dead cockroach on the bow of the boat. This generated some sympathy from the captain of a nearby boat who came over to help. He said to check the breaker again and this time my son did and found the proper breaker to flip. It wasn’t tripped but rather had been turned off. It was also in the middle of the bank of “don’t touch” battery switches which is why I hadn’t bothered to check it.

Once again this is something I should have caught but while I’ve dealt with tripped breakers, I never have been sent out on a yacht with the breaker in the off position. Every boat brief I’ve ever had did a brief run out of the anchor to show its operation which would have caught one, if not both, or the windlass issues but that wasn't done this time. This also doesn’t explain why we were unable to manually unlock the windlass but of course the maintenance folks weren’t coming out so that remained a possible issue for any future anchor windlass problems.

But we were finally settled in at Anegada. We spent the night on the hook but grabbed a ball the next morning after boats departed. We went ashore, made reservations for lobster at Potter’s and grabbed a taxi to Cow Wreck.

My goodness, I think we could have spent the entire 10 days of the trip just sitting at Cow Wreck. The Conch Fritters were the best I’ve ever had. The drinks kept flowing, and the water was gorgeous.

We left mid-afternoon to get back on the boat and get ready for our dinner at Potter’s. The Moorings 45.3 has this large, electrically controlled, swim platform at the stern which of course is great for swimming. However trying to get in and out of a dinghy on the stern of a bucking monohull with basically nothing for someone in the boat to grab onto and steady things while passengers climb on or off, was always a challenge, especially for us old folks. I rigged a couple of dock lines from the stern cleats, looped over the swim ladder side rails which helped.

Lobster and drinks were great at Potter’s. They had a DJ going who eventually got to Sweet Caroline that had the whole place singing. A great end to a great visit to Anegada.

Louis from Houston