The last thing we (the royal 'we') wanted to do in temperatures of 28 degrees and high humidity was to venture into the anchor locker. Bruce, wearing very little managed to squeeze himself in armed with a hammer and some other tools. He tapped away at the gearbox to try and remove it from the drive shaft so we could take a closer look but unfortunately the gearbox/shaft were corroded solid and no matter what he did it just wouldn't budge... we missed our friend Barry with his vast Bosun's locker who may have had a puller just perfect for the job in hand!

Having asked the owners of the yachts either side of us and with no DIY store immediately to hand we've accepted that any anchoring from here on in will have to be done manually, certainly not something that either of us are particularly keen on unless absolutely necessary so with the windlass out of action it's now a priority job on our winter list.