We tried to leave English Harbour yesterday morning, but failed!  We got going bright and early after probably the windiest night so far, started motoring out of the bay with the anchor trailing in the water to clean it, then just as Lindsay brought the last few feet up to stow it, the windlass gave way and dropped the anchor plus 110m of chain and warp on the sea bed!  The windlass had just fallen apart below decks leaving the motor dangling and nothing to stop the chain whooshing out.  We called for help, as I couldn’t at first see how I was going to get it up, but by the time help arrived I’d managed to haul it all up by hand (back-breaking and hand damaging work).  With help we got moored in Nelson’s Dockyard where we tracked down an engineer who could help mend the windlass.  It looks like the trouble we had in Las Palmas when the big German boat dragged it’s anchor onto ours must have done some internal damage to our windlass.  I fell guilty that I didn’t inspect it at the time, but in reality the problem was hidden inside and I wouldn’t have found it.  Help turned up this morning and by lunchtime we were operational again. 

We’re going to leave now and head straight for St Maarten overnight.