The windlass brake, that’s the thing which stops anchor and chain leaving your boat uncontrolled, began to fail during our first anchoring attempt in Ibiza. We didn’t realize what the problem was and assumed operator error. Turns out that this wasn’t the case. Our Quick windlass has a brake stopping the chain which became harder and harder to use. During our 5th anchoring attempt (meaning we used the windlass 5 times since we bought the boat new) the brake broke down. The thread in the bronze bearing was ripped out by the stainless steel spindle thread from the windlass motor. Surprise! How can an engineer match a soft bronze thread with tough stainless steel thread and hope it holds.

During the last anchor attempt in a narrow rocky bay in Southern Spain the brake failed and we had the troubling experience to haul in our chain with a broken windlass at night. Luckily we had an experienced friend, engineer and sailors de luxe on board (Chris and Susanne) who rigged a one time fix to get the anchor up. We were not sure if the fix would get the 60m chain up at all or could withstand any stress from a boat pulling at the chain and anchor. We maneuvered the boat gently over the anchor and retrieved it slowly without any further difficulties – except the tension in our minds.

We motored on during the night to Port Roses in Spain and docked long after midnight at the fuel dock of the port. We left at 6:30 the next morning still very tired.

The picture below shows the emergency brake fix of the anchor windlass.

Emergency brake fix done during the night

The conical brake of the windlass. Evaluating a repair, improving the windlass. We have some ideas. Thanks Chris.

Ripped out threads.

Our starboard solar panel bank failed some days ago. We assumed it’s a short circuit in the system.

Today we discovered a smoldering burn on deck because of a smell of burning plastic in the cockpit.

Very happy. Reached a milestone.

Below: Susanne and her friend Susanne. In order to distinguish the two we nicknamed them A-Hoernchen and B-Hoernchen. Chris and Susanne sailed with us from Spain to Sete.

Docked in the industrial port of Sete.

Just after crossing the sea border between Spain and France we were boarded by French customs.

Picked up friends in the Cevennes, France. Nothing worked to get them near Tarragona timely, so The Admiral and myself drove by rental car 500km to France and next morning back.

Tried to clear out Spanish customs on the way back in Barcelona and had the most unpleasant and hostile experience you can imagine. We were not cleared out – not even allowed to enter the customs office.

We’ll try today another way 😅

We arrived safely in Puerto Reda de Bara, Spain.

The salt layers on the deck were thick, like I have never seen before.

We have no photos from the night. It was freshening up to 40kts, which is a lot for us.

Here are some photos from early morning. We are still 20nm from the coast.

“Water” is boatspeed through water and was constantly hitting 10kt in pitch dark night. Was a wet ride on the outside steering stand.

Anything you touch is heavily salted.

We are lucky to sail to the west of a strong Mistral blowing south in the Golf de Lion.

Anchor up at 6:00 in the dark and maneuvering out of the anchorage. Radar assisted nicely to go around unlit boats in the anchorage.