Almost made it...

We were supposed to be at anchor tonight. We got up this morning and went to Deb's Doctor's appointment. There we got permission to be on our way. $500 worth of provisioning purchased at four different stores on the way back to the boat got stowed. The boat was topped with water. All ground power lines were pulled in and we left one dock to go to another dock, tied up starboard side to so the diver (and good friend) had easy access to the boat. While he was cleaning the bottom and replacing a couple of zincs Grandson Eldest and I emptied the holding tank. Then the 3 of us went over to the Bean for a final round of iced coffee. After that we climbed aboard and, with the help of some friends, I made a complete botch of getting off the dock in a slight port to starboard cross wind. Embarrassing, but nothing got damaged. During the next several minutes we changed our mind three for four times as to where we were going to anchor, with the final decision being to head out into the Neuse river where we could find a little more depth and swing room to drop the hook. Happy with a place, I called for the anchor pin to be pulled and hit the down switch. A second later the winch locked up. After a few minutes of struggling with it on the bouncing deck I made the decision to head back to the dock for troubleshooting and repair.

Once safely tied back on the dock from which we started this morning, I started working on the winch. I must be getting old because it took me about 2 hours to figure out the 5 minute repair needed to fix the thing. Yes we have the operations manual on board. Yes we got it out and read through it. And no, it didn't help at all. Nothing in the manual reflected the problem I was seeing.

Somehow the clutch locking pin got pulled instead of the anchor pin. The pin I thought was going to get pulled is about ¾ inch in diameter, about 6 inches long, and goes through the anchor and anchor roller mount bracket. The one that got pulled is about ¼ inch in diameter and sticks out of the clutch cover itself maybe half an inch. But pull on that thing when the motor is engaged and bang, a solid steel, spring loaded locking pin pops out and jams hard against a lock block. All of the actions recommended by the operations manual to move the clutch proved useless as the assembly was completely jammed. One must remove the lock block itself, located at the 6 o'clock position below the clutch and held in place with two hard to reach bolts, to release the pin. This allows one to use the motor to spin the clutch so the big locking pin is at 12 o'clock where it can be pushed back down into its hole to be held in place by the little locking pin that should never have been pulled in the first place. 

The whole debacle was entirely the captain's (that would be me) fault. I was simply not careful enough to rehearse what we would be doing to deploy the anchor. A simple process, pull the big pin and push the anchor off the deck to be lowered into the water. But all I said was “pull the pin”. The one that caught the eye of the puller was the little one. Easy mistake that could have been avoided if I had been more careful. So I learned two things. The first was actually a re-learning: there is no such thing as being redundant and annoying when it comes to explaining to someone who is new to a system what needs to be done. The second, I now know the 5 minute fix. 

In any case we are back on the dock for tonight. By the time I pulled my head out of my butt and got the thing fixed, the sun was nearly set. Call it a day. The crew is enjoying one more shore side shower. Deb in particular as she has been cleared to remove her brace as long as she is not walking or the boat is in motion. Me? I'm typing this and sipping a glass of my favorite rum while trying not to be too embarrassed by my poor showing for the day. Tomorrow we will give it another try.