Things didn’t go to plan when leaving Gustavia. Around 3pm on Thursday we prepared to leave. Helen was at the anchor, I was at the helm. Before the anchor was fully raised, the windlass stopped working. We were left in a crowded anchorage with a dangling anchor and no plan B. This left Helen to figure out what to do with the anchor while I held position. We couldn’t motor out as we could snag anything with the anchor and make things worse. Obvious fixes such as flipping the circuit breaker did not work as it had not tripped. Helen was unable to haul the anchor manually using the windlass and winch and ended up having to haul the anchor chain by hand. A neighbour saw we were in difficulty and came aboard to help at the end. He arrived in time to help Helen tie the anchor down.
Having secured the anchor we motored out of the anchorage to assess the situation hoping for a simple answer. None was forthcoming so given the time of day we decided to try and find a mooring ball. In the end we had to call the port authority to provide us one right in the harbor close to all the megayachts. This required a front and rear tie which we would have struggled to perform had it not been for the immediate offer of help from the crew of “Wild Horses” next to us.
So began the long process of troubleshooting the issue. Starting with no knowledge at all of the windlass circuit this involved having to deal with a lot of potential unknowns. In situations like this you don’t know what you don’t know so you’re often plagued with the possibility you’ve overlooked something.
The symptoms were confusing. It was straightforward to verify voltage was coming into the controlling relay but nothing was working. When I figure out I was dealing with a relay, making a manual connection to bypass the relay didn’t accomplish anything so it suggested the motor had an issue. It went on. As it went dark I was no closer to the answer so I cleared up, sent an email to Catco with my observations and slept on it.
On Friday I couldn’t get an internet connection so I was on my own. After four hours, having pulled apart practically everything, I found the answer. The cause was a poor connection at the circuit breaker. The connections were close enough for capacitance to carry a voltage to the motor but nowhere near enough to perform any useful action. My troubleshooting had been compounded by the fact that the negative wire to the relay (but not to the motor) was disconnected when I turned off the hybrid motors. I had had them on on Thursday evening but had switched them off overnight so this had given me new variables to contend with on Friday morning. I had managed to deduced the negative wire wasn’t connected but initially I was left with the unnerving possibility I had had two simultaneous issues – something one always has to question.
Along the way we also managed to ease the stiffness in the manual system and to remove a safety bolt which prevented a latch from engaging – probably useful for charter but not for us. We also rehearsed manually lowering and raising the anchor so we have a plan B for the future. The whole episode has provided us quite a few lessons learned and we’re all the better for it.
The really good news was when I went to the port authorities to settle up for the mooring they said there was no charge as this was the result of an ‘emergency’. Kudos and thanks to the Gustavia port officials.
We decided to skip Anse de Colombier and get back onto our original timetable by spending a quiet afternoon and night at Ile Fourchue. This we managed to get. Helen and I had our first snorkel together of the trip. Friday evening we barbecued chicken. Mmmmm.
It’s now Saturday morning. Skies are overcast and it is gusty. Looks good for a sail around the east coast of St Martin back to Marigot. This morning I compiled the project list – there is much to do. I’d like to get the remaining electronic projects completed before the parents leave as my father would be interested to see them work. The three core projects are the SSB install, AIS and radar. This is not the complete list by far but enough to keep us busy for a few days.
(later)
Pleasant but slowish sail to St Martin. Often we find that if the heavens only open once on a trip it’s when we’re anchoring and Helen is out front. It happened again today. Checked in then zipped off to Budget Marine before closing to pick up some antenna and mounts so I can get cracking tomorrow.
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