Since we will be off the boat for the next couple of days to enjoy our little “Escape to Barbados” respite starting tomorrow, we opted to take a good mooring in front of the Barbados Yacht Club. Since we will not be on the boat, we want it well secured if a strong storm should magically appear. However, moving to the mooring field was not without a bit of excitement.

We were getting ready to weigh anchor and we discovered that the chain counter sensor was not working. I was not a happy camper as it was installed only last January, when we installed our new windlass. Grrrrrr! These sensors have a nasty habit of failing and one would think that Quick, which makes our windlass, could design and make a sensor that could better withstands the rigors of the marine environment. I have looked at the sensors that other windlass manufactures make and most of them look to be rather hardy. The Quick sensor is just a piece of cheap junk, that still costs over $40….plus shipping. Oh well, what can one do? Our boat is designed for the Quick windlass as only it will fit in the space provided.

When the sensor fails, the handheld remote will not work. Thus, you cannot use it to raise or lower the anchor chain. That, in itself, is a design error. One would think they would design the unit to work if the sensor fails, you would just not be able to read the counter numbers.

Fortunately, the anchor chain switch that is up on the helm will work so Mary Margaret can raise the anchor chain while working the boat. I, meanwhile, am up at the bow, using hand signals to tell her where to steer the boat, when to stop the boat, when to raise the anchor chain and when to stop raising the anchor chain. Needless to say, Mary Margaret has her hands full doing all of the work while I just observe and signal.

With the anchor chain and anchor finally raised, we motored off to the mooring field, located the mooring we were assigned, and soon were attached to the mooring ball. It felt a little weird being near the beach in a mooring field surrounded by other boats. We usually sit at anchor in an anchorage being the furthest boat out. In such locations, we usually get the most wind (which we love as it keeps the boat cool and runs our wind generator) but we also get more of the swells. That can make us a bit rolly at times. However, being a catamaran, it does not usually bother us.

On the other hand, sitting in this mooring field we are not getting much wind, the seas are flat, and we look out and see that we are surrounded by a plethora of boats. Now we do not believe anyone is living on these boats since they are mostly owned by members of the yacht club. However, it is still a very strange feeling for us.

The picture I am posting to this blog shows just one side of the mooring field but also captures the Hilton, where we will be staying.