Guadeloupe - Basse Terre and a troublesome winch

15.58.28N  61.42.380W

31 January 2023

5202 miles since leaving Sandwich.

The next stop wasn’t Petite Anse as it turned out to be far too Petite for us to share with the other three yachts already in residence. Instead, we carried on south and after a grand total of 12 miles dropped anchor outside of the little marina on the river Sense. The marina is permanently full of local boats by all accounts, and we didn’t even try for a berth and found a lovely spot opposite a quarry amongst some other yachts. A quarry doesn’t sound like the most picturesque anchoring spots I admit, but it did provide some interesting views of little trucks (or were they big ones a long way away) crawling up the ridiculously steep hill to bring the stone down the mountain.

The only two points of note from the trip were the constant rain and the gears on my mainsail winch decided to keep slipping when it was being used in the high gear. Most disconcerting, especially when you are going for it with the winch handle spinning and suddenly it slips which catapults you forward to head but the damn thing. I have been described as hard-headed once or twice and even thick skulled on occasion but trust me my cranium is as soft as butter compared to a metal winch top.

As the rain was coming down steadily, we rigged the covers and decided to stay aboard for the afternoon which gave me the opportunity to strip the winch and find out what ailed it. As it turned out it was a fairly easy fix. Once stripped I found a build up of salt and mucky stuff under the central axle had allowed it to rise by a couple of millimetres. This was enough to let one of the gear pawls pop out when under load letting the winch free spin for half a turn before everything fell back into place again. Cure give everything a damn good clean and put it back together properly this time.

Not sure if this will actually be of interest to anyone but if there is a Barlow winch appreciation society out there here are some pictures.    

Looking shiny but it is broken inside.    

Strip down begins.

More Shiny bits removed.

Technically known as the gubbins.

And even more bits come off.

Now we are down to the business end of the winch.

The central cog is the problem child as it is lifted slightly allowing the pawls to jump in their sockets.

Carefully lifting the gear so that the pawls don’t spring out every.where

The tiny lifted area on the bottom ratchet gear is the indicator of the problem. Dirt underneath it is lifting it slightly.

Bit out of focus this one because this was exciting stuff.

Last few pieces to remove and the central hole has been cleaned out already.

Cleaning everything abnd trial fitting before oiling and greasing.

Everything laid out after cleaning

This is my, I have lost the little spring face .

All done, the sun came out and my now working winch is all shiny again.

And that is it for this exciting episode........ Next time The Isle de Saintes